DG: Final Fantasy XIII
by Dimensional-Gateway
Summary: The first of my Dimensional Gateway series. My true summary's too long, but this contains OC inserts; NONE of the hated MarySues. Pairings most likely include FLight and canon. Full summary inside, rated T for now. Not what you think, promise.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: So, this is the start of my new Dimensional Gateway series :3 My profile goes more into depth on that, if you're interested I advise you to go check it out!**

**Summary: Two friends leave their dying world to seek out a new life among that of Final Fantasy XIII. There's a catch though… they know the whole story. Follow them as they attempt to change the seemingly inevitable, possibly making new friends, and enemies, along the way. FLight, Hope/Vanille, Snow/Serah, obviously some OCs. Most likely AU, since I'm lazy in doing EXACT research.**

**Well, that summary is a HUGE generalization, but the specifics get revealed as the story wears on. This first chapter is basically going to be confusing; it explains things by the end though, I assure you. And please don't just give up on it because parts may sound boring, it gets interesting, I promise… ONWARD! Oh yeah, and before I forget… I hate Mary Sues. If you see my OCs developing into one, tell me. Please, GOD, tell me if that starts to happen. I'm decent at not letting that happen but- crap, I'm rambling.**

**Warning, this included end of game SPOILERS. You have been WARNED.**

Dimensional Gateway: FF XIII

Chapter 1: New Beginnings

Trinity's eyes shot open, only to quickly close them again as something wet hit her eyes. Had she just heard her name?

"Trin, you've been in there for an hour! Aren't you freezing yet?" a familiar voice sounded, muffled by a door.

_Oh that's right. I was showering. Whoops._

"Just a minute Sophie!"

The girl slowly but surely sat up. She had fallen asleep in the shower. Again. The water had long since turned cold and it was a wonder how she hadn't been awoken by the sheer iciness of it. She passed it off as over exhaustion and lack of sleep. Now more aware, Trinity turned off the shower head and stepped out onto the worn tile floor, a little numb from the cold. She then quickly wound a towel around her body before opening the door and nudging her friend aside.

"You fell asleep in the shower again, didn't you?" the origin of the earlier voice, Trinity's travel mate and best friend, asked. The brown haired girl stood there with her hands on her hips as Trinity rolled her eyes. That was all the answer Sophie needed, so she entered the bathroom with a sigh, not looking forward to the icy shower.

Trinity gazed at the door Sophie had disappeared behind for a minute, waiting for the shower to turn back on before dropping the towel and getting dressed. She quickly pulled on the training garb the facility she resided at provided all its inhabitants with and looked around the metal room; that would be her last time in that room. Both of theirs, actually.

The two were part of a special task force, their task being to leave Earth, and to never return.

Three years ago the announcement was made. All the attempts to change the past using the newly invented time machine had been futile, and only ended in the present day to go from bad, to worse. The fact that scientist knew how they were better off before messing with the time stream was a paradox on its own, seeing after time is changed the previous time stream is supposed to be non-existent. And, with that knowledge, the scientists decided time travel wasn't going to save mother Earth. So, they devised a new plan. One of the main issues was that there was massive overpopulation; there was no land to grow crops on, which meant there was little food to be fed to the population of 20 billion— roughly four times the population as when the 2000's started.

This plan, to avoid legal consequences, couldn't involve murder. It also couldn't be against the 'deportees' will. But how were they to clear the planet of 10 billion people, so that the remaining could rebuild a better Earth? The answer came in the form of a book… and then movies, followed by video games, and fantasies from inside the heads of two year olds. They would send applicants into a different dimension, a fantasy.

Shortly after the discovery of time travel, scientist discovered the existence of different dimensions within the space-time continuum. With further studies, scientists found that every thought, every spec of imagination creates a different dimension in which that idea reigns supreme. This means that the second the author of a book thought up a novel idea, somewhere that idea became a reality.

The idea of this project, to move 10 billion people into different dimensions, became known as 'Project Dreamer', in reference to those who applied to participate and dreamed of having a better life.

Trinity and Sophie heard about this when they were walking through one of Earth's few remaining inhabitable cities, and almost immediately applied. Trinity recalled the events like they were yesterday, even though they were some two and a half years ago.

"_This seems like it's too good to be true, and when it sounds like that it usually is," Trinity had said. She was always the first to doubt, the world they lived in didn't have much room for false hopes and dreams._

"_I assure you miss, this is not a hoax. SSICA finally got the picture and have found a way to better Earth at the same time giving people who want to leave Earth what they want," the middle man had explained. He was a gruff man, nearly six feet tall with a worn white coat. His name tag read 'Timothy Marcam', and underneath it clearly stated he was a SSICA employ._

"_You mean to tell us, that after all this time, the Scientific Social and Industrialist Co-ordinance Association is _actually _taking into consideration of what the people want?" Sophie had piped up, unable to believe the man either._

"_Well, seeing as SSICA practically owns Earth, and half the world hates SSICA, yes. We are finally taking into consideration of what the people want."_

"_And what's in it for us, if we sign up for your little project?" Trinity had asked._

"_You will be able to live a fantasy world of your choosing, leaving whatever bad memories you have here behind. And, no offense, but by the look of you, you both have some pretty bad memories."_

_It was true. It was no secret that after one hit the age of sixteen, you either hit the streets on your own or found yourself a traveling mate, or in other words, a partner… not necessarily _that kind of partner, but a partner nonetheless._ Trinity and Sophie were no different. Their families raised them in a city in what used to be Eastern America, and when Trinity turned seventeen, Sophie sixteen, they both set off. It was almost law, after that age you were just a burden to your family, and in that case you tend not to have a very good life._

_Remembering this fact, the two had shared glances, and simultaneously nodded their heads to show their consent to the man before them._

"_Great! It's a mile walk from here to headquarters; I need to get a few more recruits. The goal is 10 billion, after all." The girls would never find out that this task of SSICA's wouldn't be accomplished for another few decades, due to the big number, but they didn't really care about that either._

Trinity was pulled out of her thoughts once again by Sophie, now clean and shivering from the cold shower. She had opened the door and was walking out with a towel around her own body and squeezing any remaining moisture from here wavy brown hair. Sophie huffed at Trinity in her disapproval of having her last shower to be a cold one, but nevertheless stripped the towel off and started to slip on her own SSICA training jumpsuit. At this point, Trinity had returned her gaze skywards, trying her best to make pictures out of the ceiling texture.

"Scoot," Sophie said simply, and Trinity obliged as the still-cold body of Sophie plopped on the bed beside her and joined Trinity in her musings.

"Nervous?" Trinity asked.

"A little. I mean, we signed up for the fight training course so we wouldn't be totally vulnerable, but hell. Two and a half years of training probably won't get us very far, not where we're going." Trinity nodded in agreement and sat up.

"What do you think it will be like? I myself have never seen any color other than that of artificial dyes. I… I'm kind of looking forward to seeing what plants look like. They sound so… beautiful in the books I've read, and in that game… the forests looked so heavenly." Trinity laughed at Sophie's dreamy look she had gotten in her eyes.

"That's because neither of us have ever seen anything but the color grey outside of movies and the like. I haven't even seen dye, where did you see dye?" Trinity asked.

"I think the last time I saw the true color red was before I turned five. My little brother dug up this plastic looking thing. It sort of looked like the old fashion cars, you know, the ones that ran on gasoline and had wheels?"

"The ones that couldn't fly?"

"Yeah."

"Huh. You know, I never thought back that far, because that's when everything seems to have gone downward," Trinity said, a thoughtful look on her face. "I'm not going to miss this world. Not one bit. My only hope is that they have video games and stuff there. It's been years since I've been able to play one, ever since that old playstation thing broke." Sophie laughed at her friend.

"You were so pissed, that was your only escape from reality other than books!" Trinity smiled at her friend's statement. She realized the reason that they were going over the few decent memories that they had. Part of the transportation to the different dimension involved the loss of many memories, only the truly important ones or the ones they thought of when the process took place would remain. Silence filled the room as both the girls just laid in the bed and thought of all their truly important and happy memories, however few there were.

It wasn't long until the mechanical door slid open and an armored escort stepped in.

"It's time you two, come on, I haven't got all day," came the electronic static through the guy's helmet. The girls briefly looked at each other with a mixture of expressions before getting out of the bed and following the uniformed SSICA military unit down the long hallway. There was no sound in the hallway, only the click of their boots and the breathing coming from the escort. What should have been a ten minute walk felt like a couple of seconds; the girls truly were nervous.

The three came upon a large room, longer than a football field and taller than what was left of the statue of liberty. All around, scientists in worn out white lab coats bustled to work and send the new set of Dreamers to their new 'homes'. The escort led Trinity and Sophie to the other side of the room, and stopped in the middle of a large metal circle on the ground.

"You stay here." The two girls nodded and watched as the escort left the room to his other duties.

"Okay, what have we here? I assume you're the next Dreamers?" another man walked up to them. He was dressed like all the other scientists, except he looked a little more worn out and carried a clipboard.

"Yes sir," the Trinity replied, and Sophie nodded with a smile.

"Well of course you are!" he said with a warm smile of his own. "Now, before we set you off, we need to ask a few last minute questions, just to be sure you're ready and that we have everything on record." Trinity and Sophie waited patiently.

"Names?"

"Trinity Anderson."

"Sophie Aster."

"Age?"

"Twenty."

"Nineteen."

"Origin?"

"New York."

"I'm from New York, too."

"Okay… and it says here that you have both taken about two years of special training?" The girls nodded. "And this would be because your destination is… where?"

The girls glanced at each other once again, and answered in unison; "Final Fantasy XIII." The scientist looked up in recognition.

"Ah, it's been a while since we've had one of those. Mostly they go for Final Fantasy VII or Harry Potter or something along those lines." Trinity smiled knowingly.

"That's what we figured. We like to be unique… and we hated they way that game ended." The scientist smiled and walked back to stand behind a desk, but motioned for the girls to stay put. He turned on a microphone and started speaking.

"Okay, what you stand upon now is what is known as a dimensional gateway. Basically, we are able to use its magnetics along with our time travel equipment to send you to another dimension. Before we do this however, I'm going to recite to you what you should be doing and thinking as we prepare for your depart. One, don't move a muscle if you can help it. Two, if you want to change your name for the next world, now is the time to do it, this is a fresh start for you, you only get one chance. Three, you have three minutes from initiation to your actual transport. Aside from your training that we've put you through physically, as we have embedded that deep enough you won't forget, think of any and all important thing you will need to remember. Usually, the storyline is a good choice." Both of the girls nodded.

"Four, the way this happens is that an electric shock courses from the platform into your body. Normally, this would kill you, but we open the dimensional gateway and instead of dying you will end up into the dimension you are thinking of. Finally, and I cannot stress this enough, at some point in the three minutes you are given you _need _to think of the place you are going, and before we start you both need to have contact if you want to end up in the same place." At the mention of this, Trinity linked hands with Sophie, who looked as if she was getting apprehensive. "Again, think of the place you are going to. If you don't, the electric shock _will _kill you." With the nods of understanding as a sign of approval, the scientist flicked a few switches and a countdown of three minutes appeared on the front of the desk.

"Remember, don't move, and follow the instructions. And one more thing, if you are asked at any point in your new lives concerning your origins, a good thing to say is 'Portallion', meaning you came through the dimensional portal. But don't tell them the last part!" the scientist exclaimed, laughing at his subtle joke. The girls would have laughed nervously, were they told not to move or if they weren't concentrating on what they needed to remember.

Trinity knew Sophie adored the name Claire, but that was out of the question for a name change for obvious reasons. Trinity's name was already fake; much like Lightning she changed it to forget who she used to be, her old life with what she called family. Both girls rounded up whatever good memories they wanted to keep, and tried their hardest to remember the FF XIII storyline. They tried to recall all the skills they would need, even though they were told they wouldn't forget anyways. They also thought hard on where and at what point in the plot they were going, though it was easy enough seeing as they had discussed it numerous times.

And then Trinity decided to try something… the two wouldn't get anywhere as humans, even if they had acquired decent fighting skills. So in conclusion to the rest of her recallings, Trinity's last thoughts were,

… _and I am a Pulse L'cie. _She only wished she could have told Sophie, but even if she were allowed to move, immediately after these thoughts were finished a searing pain travelled up her feet and through her spinal cord as the countdown reached zero. By time it reached her heart and mind, everything went black.

* * *

><p>It was dark out, she could tell that much. Her head hurt too, and she sat up slowly with a cringe as every part of her body throbbed in time with her heart beat. In that moment, the thoughts Trinity deliberately remembered came flooding back, but everything beyond that was a black abyss, and if she tried to enter this abyss another wave of pain would travel down her spine. Immediately after gaining understanding of what had just occurred, she rapidly turned and searched for Sophie, breathing a sigh of relief when the girl was still unconscious only a few feet away.<p>

Trinity crawled over to her friend and pulled her arm over her own shoulder and hoisted both of them to their feet, wincing at a larger pain in her right leg… she must have scraped or twisted it.

Trinity didn't really know where they were, she had thought she had specified the confrontation at Palumpolum as their destination, but supposed it was either a little early in a different location or… something along those lines. Nevertheless, wherever they were, Trinity knew it probably wasn't safe to be out in the open.

As she limped on down what seemed to be a street, lit dimly with street lights, she could just barely tell the outline of something in the distance… it looked sort of like the city of PalumPolum from what she could remember and make out. Having no other destination, that's where she set off to.

"Trin?" The addressed girl looked down at her companion, once again sighing from relief and happy to see her friend awake.

"Hey, sleepy head. Have a nice nap?" Sophie scoffed quietly and once again rested her head on Trinity's shoulder.

"Where are we?" she asked, her eyes still closed.

"As far as I can tell, on the way to somewhere we should have been. Must not have been specific enough." Sophie grunted weakly in agreement, causing Trinity to look at her in concern.

"Hey… you okay?"

"Mm… yeah, just a little tired, I suppose. Aren't you?" Trinity shook her head, and continued walking. It took a few hours to finally reach the outskirts of the city, and another half hour to get somewhere in the city where they could rest. Trinity sat Sophie on a couch that had been disposed of and quickly took her place beside her.

"When do you suppose this is?" came another of Sophie's questions. Trinity put her arm around her best friend and shrugged.

"Well, since the city isn't in mass chaos yet, and I know for a fact that I thought 'at the confrontation', my guess is that we are a little early. Maybe a day or two, I don't know." A couple passed the alleyway the girls were seated in, as if to prove the not-yet chaotic state. Then Trinity realized something.

"I don't feel like I'm wearing the training jump suit…" she looked down at herself but it was too dark to see anything clearly. All she could see was that instead the one-piece jumpsuit she usually wore, she was definitely in some sort of shirt and pants. Sophie grunted again to show she agreed, though her eyes didn't open and her head didn't leave Trinity's shoulder.

Trinity looked away from her friend and replaced her worried look with a hopeful one, and sighed. She looked up, and through the gap of the two buildings the girls were between, Trinity noticed the stars the first time that night. That was the first time she had ever seen the stars, since her home world was too polluted to allow such pleasantries. Trinity smiled and nudged her almost sleeping friend urgently and pointed up. Sophie's eyes opened and looked in the direction of the gesture, and a genuine smile appeared on her face. Trinity's smile grew wider and she leaned her head on Sophie's.

"'Night Sophie."

"'Night Trin."

The girls fell asleep that night, filled with hope that this second chance at life was just what they needed. And yet, Trinity couldn't push away this feeling of apprehension. She couldn't place her finger on it, but she felt she had forgotten something important. No matter what it was though, it wouldn't pull her away from the true happiness she felt that night. How grand it would be… this new beginning.

**A/N: ANNNNDD 'scene!' How'd you like it? Drop me a review, tell me if you want me to continue. Next chapter is the mini-battle and escape from Palumpolum, so the girls will be meeting the canon characters next chapter. Don't worry though, I've been told I'm pretty good at keeping people in character… Again, review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **

**Gravenimage, I'm sorry you don't like the Fang Lightning pairing. Sorry to tell you, but for the past month that I've been trying to put this story together, that's what this story was going to involve. Leaves me wondering that if you are sick of the pairing, why would you read the story when it says that pairing in the summary? (I read your profile. Apparently you don't like yuri. I don't really know what I'll be doing with romance in this fic, but you not liking yuri… yeah, I think you aren't going to like what I'll be doing. Haven't decided if it will be graphic, but still.)**

**Tjemd, thank you. I couldn't have said that first part better myself! Thanks for reviewing :D**

**hubble36, once again, couldn't have said it better myself :) And thank you! I actually love fics where people from our world go into a movie or something, but it always disappoints me when HOW is not explained. You have NO idea how long it took me to develop this… thing. xD Thanks for reviewing! **

**With that out of the way… crap… I had something I wanted to say but I forgot. Oh yeah, I don't do word for word from the game stuff. I make up my own dialogue that has the same idea. Also, this is long because I promised I would have the OCs meet the FFXIII characters in this chapter. Remind me not to do that again xP**

**I have a link to my OC's character art in my profile, go check it out!**

D.G: Final Fantasy XIII

Chapter 2: Changes

With all of her heart, Trinity had more or less hoped to wake up to the sound of explosions, simply because that would tell her what time it was. Instead, Trinity awoke to the sound of shoes scraping on streets and the sound of construction a few blocks down. She tiredly rubbed the remaining sleep out of her eyes before working her way off the couch without disturbing Sophie and stretching.

"Darn… well, maybe the fight happens later today," she muttered to herself.

"You say something?" Trinity turned around to see Sophie leaning on her elbow rubbing the sleep out of her own eyes. But, instead of answering, Trinity notices the clothes Sophie was wearing and looked down at herself.

"Huh. I wonder where the jumpsuits went." Sophie looked up at Trinity and then down at her own new clothing.

Sophie was now wearing a green tank top and a white unzipped jacket with collar that went up higher than was necessary. The jacket sleeves only went down just above her elbow, and the hem of the jacket ended just above her waist; it was decorated with black stripes at some of the seams. She also had a belt that had an empty pouch attached to it. This was looped around a pair of baggy, tan shorts that adorned more than a few pockets, and ended just above her knees. Her shoes were a pair of black boots that traveled half way up her shins. She had a fingerless glove on one hand, and a silver bracelet around the other along with a matching ring, both had 'D.G.' engraved in them. Sophie looked up at her friend with her wide, hazel eyes and smiled.

"It's just what I thought of! I didn't think it would work…" Sophie trailed off as she checked to see if she had anything of use in her pockets.

"You thought of everything didn't you?" Trinity chuckled. She herself had forgotten to think of what clothes she was going to wear, but she too had gained new gear. She wore a low cut red shirt that had two straps on only one shoulder. The shirt was tucked into a thick, wooden waist plate, for protection she assumed. She was also wearing grayish shorts, but much to her dismay they didn't even reach her mid thigh. Her dark brown boots came up to her knees though, and also had wooden knee pads. Her wrists were accompanied by leather wrist bands. She also had a choker necklace and a ring to match Sophie's own bracelet and ring. Her black hair had been pulled into a side ponytail and fell loosely on her right shoulder.

"No wonder I felt so exposed and uncomfortable last night. Eighty percent of my skin is showing!" Trinity's blue eyes burned in frustration, and she placed her hands on her hips. Sophie giggled and poked Trinity's waist plate.

"At least you have a little bit of armor… and you don't look half bad, you know. Remember when I used to beg you to show off what you had?" Trinity glared at her brown haired friend. She never did like to wear short sleeves or shorts. Now, she had to.

"This so called armor? Yeah. It's made of wood. Why is it made of wood?" Trinity asked. She wrapped her knuckled against her stomach and decided that wood armor was better than no armor, but still.

"I don't know. Hey, you wouldn't happen to have some sort of weapon, would you? All my pockets are empty." Sophie's hands were shoved deep into one of her pockets, hoping that they would find something that wasn't there.

Trinity shook her head. She only had two pockets and she didn't have a pouch, and she already knew nothing was in the pockets.

"Well, hopefully we'll find something along the way… worst case scenario we have to jack a PSICOM soldier of his gun and stuff… Hey! Wait up!" Trinity had left Sophie in the alley and started walking down the same street she had taken on the way into town.

"And you wouldn't happen to remember any of this would you? Or were you too tired?" Trinity asked once Sophie had caught up with her. Sophie shook her head.

"The only thing I remember from last night is the stars." They both smiled at the short memory. Trinity took what seemed like a random turn, then stopped on the side walk, causing a few pedestrians to bump into her.

"What's wrong?" Sophie asked her. When Trinity didn't answer, the green eyed girl gently grabbed her friends arm and led her to the side of a building so they wouldn't block traffic.

"I'm just trying to remember the layout of this place. It's almost impossible though, I haven't played this game in years." Trinity's head was bowed and her arms crossed, her eyes had a thoughtful look to them. Sophie glanced around at their surroundings but gave up at trying to help. She was the worst at remembering directions, if either of them knew their way around, even if the layout originated from a video game, it would be Trinity.

"Too bad we don't have a pause menu or map, eh?" Sophie chuckled nervously but fell quiet when Trinity didn't share the laugh.

"This isn't an actual game, Sophie. This is the real deal." Trinity started walking again, coming to the conclusion that standing in one place would, literally, not get them anywhere.

"I know that!" Sophie exclaimed as she fell back into step with her friend. Her loud remark drew a few non to friendly glances.

"Keep it down, I'm trying to think…" Trinity continued to walk and Sophie huffed.

"Think… what were the events just before the confrontation? What should we be looking out for?" The two girls had made it into a less crowded part of the city, and Trinity had begun to pace.

"I know for a fact Lightning and Hope were using an underground passage, and then they resurfaced… but then what happened?" Trinity stopped her pacing to run a hand through her hair.

"Ugh… why is this so difficult? I distinctively remember that I thought of this before we got here. What happened after they resurfaced?" Sophie had taken to leaning against a wall and just let Trinity try to figure it out. Just as Trinity began to pace again, a male voice sounded throughout the atmosphere causing everyone in the city to look up for its origins.

"Attention all Palumpolum civilians. The Sanctum has announced the location of the fugitive L'cie. A public execution will be following the immediate L'cie capture. This live feed is coming from the scene in Palumpolum." With this Trinity's eyes sparked and looked around for a screen. And there they were, Lightning and Hope stood there ready to fight on the video they were being shown. Trinity spotted something else in the video that looked familiar.

"Aww! That building is clear on the other side of the city!" Trinity pouted and continued to watch the video while Sophie came up behind her and tugged on her arm.

"Well come on! We aren't going to get any closer by just standing here!" Sophie tried to get her friend to move, but the blue eyed girl would not budge.

"Wait." Trinity shook her friend's hand off and stepped closer to the screen. Screams had started erupting at the news, and the streets were rapidly filling with people going the opposite way of the L'cie.

"For what?"

"What good would we do at this point in time? In mere seconds they are going to be surrounded. No amount of any training we've gone through is going to be able to take on the amount of military units that are going to be there." Sophie looked a little crestfallen, and folded her arms across her chest.

"What do you propose that we _do _do then?" Right after Sophie finished her sentence, a loud explosion was heard that came a ways behind them. Trinity turned away from the screen, knowing what was to follow.

"Well… they are going to start evacuating the city next. We can't really allow ourselves to get evacuated but I don't want to introduce ourselves just yet. What to do…" Trinity's eyes lit up. "We can stalk Snow and Hope up until the group gets together. We can figure things out from there." The black haired girl started a fast pace, and it took a few seconds for Sophie to catch up.

"Why Hope and Snow? Why not Lightning and Fang?"

"Think about it. Where will we blend in the most? In an angry mob or in… well, nothing? I don't know about you but an angry mob seems a little more like some decent camouflage." Sophie thought about this as she continued to follow her companion.

"But what about PSICOM? Remember? The people who came in contact with any L'cie were apprehended and… I think 'purged'," Sophie voiced her apprehensions, but Trinity wasn't listening. With a groan of disapproval, Sophie sustained her pace to keep up with her friend.

Suddenly, Trinity stiffened, pulled Sophie into an alley, and placed a finger to her lips to signify silence. The green eyed girl gave a questioning look, but all Trinity did was glance around the corner, only to duck back and pull Sophie behind a garbage can. Not five seconds later a group of civilians walked past the alley the girls were in, accompanied by PSICOM escorts.

When she was sure they were out of hearing range, Sophie spoke. "You think they saw us?"

Trinity shook her head, "I don't think so. If they did then they ignored us. Come on."

Now with more caution and stealth, the girls made their way down the street, sticking to the side of the walls. Soon they were at the place where the confrontation took place, except…

"No one's here." Sophie groaned and sat down against a wall. Trinity, on the other hand, carefully picked her way through the ice left by Snow's Eidolon. She reached out to touch it and was surprised to find that it wasn't cold. She smirked.

"Cool…" The blue eyed girl stepped over another patch of ice and made her way to the middle of the abandoned battleground.

"I wonder which way they went?" Trinity turned around at Sophie's question; the asker had joined her friend to overlook the damage.

"Well, if I remember correctly, Fang and Lightning stayed on the ground level, but Hope and Snow went somewhere up there… Let's see… did you hear anyone make an announcement to completely evacuate the city?"

"Sure, about five minutes ago. Something about not wanting the civilians to get caught in the crossfire." Trinity nodded. That sounded about right, which would mean Snow and Hope would soon be making their grand entrance to the next battlefield.

"So, I've been making all the choices so far. Where to? You choose the next direction." Trinity gave a playful smile and Sophie rolled her eyes.

"Oh joy, I finally get to be included. My heart is crying tears of happiness and—"

"Okay, okay. You've made your point now take your pick. We have maybe ten minutes until they encounter the riot." Sophie pondered this. There were two stair cases, one on either side of the area they were in.

"I guess if it's a fifty-fifty shot I should just pick one?" the brown haired girl looked to her companion to check for any signs of approval, but instead met a humorous smirk.

"…Or, you can take the path of logic and choose the side with the most destruction and unconscious… dead… people." Sophie frowned and lightly punched the side of Trinity's arm.

"You said I could choose!"

"So choose." Sophie's frown deepened before taking off in the hinted at direction; you could almost make out the steam radiating off her head.

The two made their way up several flights of stairs, careful not to disturb the bodies of fallen soldiers. From there, Trinity picked paths through a few tunnel-like balconies, with only the occasional scattered body. The whole time they walked, they remained in silence. That is, until they ran into a dead end.

"Great. So what now?" Trinity's blue eyes rolled.

"Don't tell me you've forgotten!" Sophie's face turned curious and walked over to a ledge.

"We take the same way Hope and Snow took. Up the icy bridge." Trinity took a small jump up onto the ledge closely followed by Sophie.

"You sure this is safe?" Trinity chuckled.

"What's with you? I'm usually the doubter and here you are asking all the questions of pessimism." Trinity could feel hazel eyes burning holes through the back of her head.

"Only when it can get us killed." Trinity smiled.

"Lighten up, Sophie. You're starting to sound like a certain pink haired soldier we've yet to meet."

"I do not!"

"You're right… _she_ actually takes risks." Trinity ducked Sophie's swat at her head and backed off of the ice onto the metal pathway; the one that also had dead soldiers on it.

"You're the one who said this isn't a game, this is the real deal. We can't just restart after a game over, Trin." Sophie hopped down after Trinity, careful not to land on a body.

"What's the use of living in a fantasy world if you aren't going to have fun with it?" To that, Sophie had no answer, and they remained in silence as they walked on. They could hear the sounds of battle in the distance and the air surrounding them still smelt burnt. At one point, they came to what looked like another dead end, but they quickly found the passage way that led out. It lead to a hallway that led to a place that seemed to be underground… they could tell from all the pipes.

"How much time do you figure we've got?" Sophie asked. The girls had been walking for a while and decided to take a rest; it sounded like they were catching up to Hope and Snow. It was either that, or the tunnels they were in had wicked sound carrying and echo capabilities.

Trinity shrugged. "You mean before we catch up or in general?"

"I was referring to when we would catch up, but… what do you mean by 'in general'?" The two girl's eyes found the others'. Trinity looked away first.

"I've been thinking. We're pretty much human right? We only have a little special training, but nothing _too _special?" Sophie nodded.

"Well… I've just been wondering that, if we actually pull off joining their little gang, how long we would last. It seems they have a hard enough time fighting, and they're L'cie. If we're only human, how hard do you think that same fighting will be for us?" Sophie had been staring at the blue eyed woman, but at this statement she looked away.

"You think we won't make it?" Silence. "Trin, do you think we made a mistake of picking this as our new home?" Trinity's head snapped up.

"Never. To me, it will be enough if I can make it far enough to see Gran Pulse. We've seen a little bit of greenery here in the city, but I'm almost positive that's nothing compared to what they have on Pulse. If I can make it that far, it won't have been a waste. If I can't… well, this world is still better than the one we grew up in." Sophie had to look away from her friend again; the look in her eyes was so intense and filled with determination.

"I… suppose. Yeah, I agree with you." Trinity smiled and walked over to her companion and put her arm over Sophie's shoulder, and pulled Sophie's forehead to meet her own.

"I have faith we'll get far enough to see that green, and to help only a little bit. The real trick will be convincing them that we won't slow them down. I have a feeling Light will have a hard time believing we won't be a burden…" they both erupted into quiet giggles. Trinity then used the hand that wasn't around her friend's shoulder to push Sophie's head away playfully.

"Now come on, I think they're moving again, probably out in the streets now. I can't hear anymore gunfire." With that, they both took off at a run, now motivated to face the task ahead.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait… wait." Sophie said this after they had been running for a few minutes. Trinity slowed to a stop and walked back to meet Sophie, who seemed a little confused.

"I thought they made the evacuation announcement when Snow and Hope were already on the streets?" Trinity furrowed her eyebrows at this and though hard about the order of the events.

"Well… maybe." She thought about this a moment more before her eyes widened when she remembered. Sophie was right… "but then… what's that gunshot sound we've been following?"

They both tried remembering before Sophie snapped her fingers. "The subway, Light and Fang fought near a subway for a little while. Maybe we've been hearing the sounds being carried?" Seeing as there was no other explanation, Trinity groaned.

"We've been heading in the wrong direction for the past ten minutes! That's it, times up. Snow and Hope are probably fighting that one thing by now." Sophie shook her head.

"No, there hasn't been another explosion yet."

"The first time they fight it, the explosion hasn't occurred." Trinity started pacing again. "But then what the hell _is _happenin—" Trinity was cut off from the massive amounts of gunfire and screams coming from the ceiling.

"…Oh… OH. Man, I am all mixed up. I thought he went all 'I am a Pulse L'cie' like… fifteen minutes ago! Or was it ten?" Sophie rolled her eyes and took hold of Trinity's wrist. "Five?"

"Hush, you!" The two looked around for a manhole and ladder that they could use to get to the surface, and finally found one after listening to deafening gunshots for at least a few minutes. They hurriedly climbed up, anxious to see the going-ons of the up above.

Sophie started to open the manhole—having to use all her strength on the heavy object—but dropped it with just as much swiftness as they had moments before in their search.

"What is it?" Trinity whisper-shouted up to her.

"PSICOM! Tons of them just loitering around this area. I guess Snow and Hope haven't gotten to them yet." The manhole started to move, and the girls exchanged wide eyed horror before hastily making their way down the ladder.

"Who's down there?" Of course the girls didn't answer, but they heard the soldier that called out talk to another and soon two military units were expertly sliding down the ladder and pointing their guns around at anything that moved.

_Shit! _Trinity mouthed. Sophie was repeating the phrase 'we're dead' over and over again in her head. Both, however, were thinking that they should have picked up some guns, seeing as there were enough dead soldiers lying around at the surface.

"We know somebody's down here! Show your selves! Step out of your hiding place with your hands behind your head!"

The girls looked at each other.

_What do we do? _Sophie mouthed.

_I know what we AREN'T going to do…_ Sophie glared at Trinity.

_What. Do. We. Do, _Sophie repeated, though slower. Trinity took a deep breath, and once she was composed, turned back to Sophie's green eyes.

_Okay, here's what we do…_ Trinity finished off using hand motions to communicate that they were to wait 'til the soldier turned around. Then, one of them would knock out—kill if need be—the closest soldier, and use any weapons that he had on the other enemy. Sophie slowly nodded, not sure if she understood everything, but nevertheless they got into a prepared stance behind the wall of which they had taken cover. Trinity took the risk in looking back at the soldiers, but quickly pulled back, shocked.

"Hey!" the soldier rushed over at them. They didn't have time to think. Their training took hold and the first thing Trinity did when the soldier came behind their wall was swing at him, hitting him in his unprotected neck. Something snapped and Trinity knelt down clutching at her hand, but at the moment Sophie paid no heed. She quickly took up the downed soldier's gun and open fired at its previous owner's companion. Soon, that soldier was down too, and it all was over in less than fourteen seconds.

Sophie tried to slow her breathing, her adrenaline still hanging on. When she finally composed herself she went back over to Trinity and knelt down beside her.

"Was that crack I heard that guy's neck or your…?" she trailed off, seeing the blue eyed woman's bloody knuckles. Trinity chuckled despite the throb of her hand.

"I think it was both," she replied, standing up.

"Come on, we have to keep moving."

"But, what about your hand?" Trinity looked back at Sophie. She had made it to the ladder and was holding her broken hand to her chest and getting ready to climb up.

"Unless you have any bandages or magical powers to heal it, there isn't much we can do at the moment. Now _come on_."

They were a little slower climbing, but to retain her pride Trinity wouldn't accept any help in climbing or heaving the manhole open. Luckily, this time the soldiers that were at the surface were dead.

"Those two work fast…" Sophie said as she poked her head out of the manhole and sat on the edge. Trinity nodded.

"I think they went that way," she gestured with her head in the direction of bodies that were lying on the ground.

"Well, then that's the way we'll go." Sophie stood up and took the lead, a little more confident with the gun in her hands. Trinity followed, a little put out of having lost being the leader.

"Cheer up. If we do end up being with the group, you wouldn't be the navigator anyways. Light would."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Sophie laughed and Trinity groaned. She knew that Sophie was high on confidence now, and that she would be showing it for the rest of the walk until something happened to shatter it.

The street they were walking on met up with a bigger street before long.

"Trin, look." Trinity walked a little faster after having faced the direction Sophie was, and started heading in the pointed out direction.

The mob of people that were after the two L'cie had followed said L'cie into an alley.

"Leave the little girl alone!"

"This is our town!"

"Kill the L'cie!"

"That's the angry mob alright," Trinity muttered, and both girls sped up their walking to meet up with the crowd. They pushed their way through the mob until they were in the front on the right side.

"I feel a little left out. Are we the only ones not shouting insults?" Sophie whisper so as not to be heard by the rest of the people.

"Guess so…" She was about to say more, but stopped. They had both been watching Snow, carefully managing what he was doing. What they were waiting for occurred, and his brand started glowing.

"Get ready to run."

"Straight through? I thought maybe we would just climb over the equipment. We won't stand out as much." Trinity blinked.

"On second thought I like your idea better. But if we get pulled back by PSICOM, I blame you." The civilian's continued shouting insults, one stood out more than others;

"I'm not afraid of you!" And then Snow used magic, and the structure overhead was struck. The citizens started shouting in terror, and it was evident that the people were, in fact, afraid of the L'cie.

The girls scoffed and took a simple step back while everyone else cowered. Then again, the people couldn't be blamed. They didn't know the L'cie before them weren't murderers.

"Now?"

"Wait," Trinity said, holding her arm out to block Sophie, who was eager to go.

Hope walked up and picked up the toy the girl had dropped and set it on the fallen structure.

"…I'm sorry." The statement could barely be heard over the terrorized whimpers of people, but the girls new the line well enough to pick it up. That's when the soldiers came rushing in, guns aimed and ready to shoot. Right before Snow and Hope's take off into the air, the screams, and the gunfire, Trinity finally shouted,

"Now!" Trinity yelled. Sophie caught the look Snow gave them when Trinity shouted, but then he got distracted with keeping Hope safe. In a moment, he was a ways up, Trinity and Sophie had ducked into yet another alley, and a bunch of PSICOM units took to the air after the L'cie.

"Now what?" Sophie shouted. Trinity was frantically looking around. Her hand still hurt, and was making it hard for her to focus, but she soon spotted a fire escape.

"There!"

They started their ascend up the stairs. It was a wonder that no soldiers followed them, but they assumed it was either because the soldiers didn't know their whereabouts or the L'cie were top priority. It was probably the latter.

When they reached the top, Sophie just barely caught a glimpse of movement on another roof, and started in that direction. Trinity followed, as she had no better option. They jumped a few gaps between the buildings, and soon enough they were examining the abandoned Dragoon jetpack… thing. It was on the roof of a circular building, and it was clear which way the L'cie had taken. They could see the PSICOM swarm from there.

"Do we wait, or stalk right under their noses?" Trinity answered by taking a seat not far from the jetpack. They would be okay; any units still after the L'cie would be drawn to the sound of gunfire, which the girls were nowhere near.

"Are you trying to avoid meeting them?" Sophie asked as she sat down next to Trinity.

"Nope."

"Then why do you keep putting it off?" The older girl sighed and turned to face her companion.

"I'm waiting for the right moment. I find it hard to picture us just walking up to them and saying, 'Hey, what's up. So listen, can we, like, join you? Yeah, we're human. We can? Awesome!'" Sophie was not amused and gave an empty stare.

"I am being completely serious. I'm trying to play this whole thing out in my mind, and I'm having a hard time finding a good point to 'make ourselves known'. So, I've kind of just decided to see if they just notice us."

"Since when has that ever worked? For anybody?"

"You know, I'd tell you, but that's not one of the things I told myself to remember and now is not the time for me to get a massive headache." Sophie grunted her reluctant agreement.

"So." Trinity stood up and stretched, careful not to aggravate her hand. "Shall we?"

"But I thought we were waiting for the expl—"

A loud blast was heard not too far off, followed by another, bigger blast.

"—osion… Okay, let's go." Instead of running, they just fast walked. Neither of them had any intention of getting involved with the next fight; they would be no match to it, even with help. They walked until they could just make out the area in which the explosion occurred, and then they snuck over to the ledge of a different building to get a better view.

"Now _that _is some determination," Sophie said, impressed. They were watching the injured Snow climb back up the building with Hope's dead weight on his shoulder. They sat back and let their feet dangle over the edge of the building overlooking the battle to come.

"Kind of makes me feel better about my hand," Trinity said in agreement. She held her hand up in the sunlight and examined it. It had stopped bleeding, but was now stiff and swollen and caked with dried blood.

Snow had just made it back up to the ground they were on before they fell, and was now picking Hope back up from the little rest he had just taken.

"Won't be long now. All they have to do is have their little heart to heart chat before big, bad, and ugly shows up," Trinity said. She retracted her hand and cradled it to her chest, wincing a little bit at the pain.

Sophie nodded. "How long do you think Hope will last on his own?"

"I don't know. When I played the game I just let him die, because I knew for a fact that's what was supposed to happen. I give him three minutes though."

"Only three? Awe, show some faith in the kid, he's stronger than we are!"

"And we would last a grand total of about thirty seconds."

"… I see your point."

They watched as the monster tossed Snow aside as if he were nothing, and then how Hope went to fight the boss alone.

"Hey, do you remember the name of that thing?" Trinity asked as Hope took the first strike.

"I… do not. All the monsters here have weird names. I barely remember the Eidolon names."

"I only remember two of those… no wait, three. Bahamut, Alexander, and Odin. The rest are too weird."

"Weird to us. I bet people here never heard of an animal called a hippopotamus," Sophie pointed out.

"True… oh, that looks like it _hurt_." Trinity watched as the beast started using its fire attacks and Hope was starting to look worn down.

"Should we help him?" Sophie asked, sounding a little nervous. The girls looked each other for a moment… before breaking into uncontrollable laughter.

"Haha! That's a good one! _Help_."

"Ha, I know, right? Besides, Fang and Light will show up any minute now. They'll be able to take that thing down." They both sat back and relaxed a little. The minutes ticked by and the L'cie female duo didn't show. Hope looked about ready to collapse if he had to fight another minute alone, and the spectator girls were getting worried.

"Where _are _they?"

"Trin, we have to help. I don't think he'll hold for much longer."

"I know, I know… But the only thing we would be good for is a distracti—" A grin started to work its way on the black haired girl's face, and her blue eyes started twinkling mischievously.

"Wh—? Oh, no. No, no, no, and NO. I am _not _acting as bait!"

"Soph, you _are _the one who said we needed to help! Come on, it's not like we have guns or something that we can fight with… Well you do, but I don't. Come to think of it, that would have been a good thing to think up when we came here…"

"I know, but… is there a way we can _both _help from a distance?"

"Well, I doubt it will even _feel _a rock that I could throw at him… how do you feel about building the world's biggest sling shot in less than thirty seconds?" Sophie tore her gaze away from the sorry sight of Hope to glare at her friend.

"The only thing I'm going to do in the next thirty seconds is kick your sorry arse. Trin, I'm not playing! What do we do?" Trinity looked back at the boy fighting for his life and then at the ladder that conveniently led down to the ground he was fighting on.

"Okay, in all seriousness, what are your thoughts on actually going down there and running like hell around the damn thing _pretending _to be more threatening than Hope, and stalling it until Light and Fang show up? You can pump it full of whatever bullets that gun has left, and I can creep it out with my infected hand." By time Trinity had finished, Sophie's eye was twitching. Trinity saw that Sophie was obviously not too fond of the idea—and didn't appreciate the joke at the end— but she also saw that they had to make a decision, and fast.

"Soph, this may also be the best time to put ourselves out there. I've gone through it over and over in my head. This may be the best if not _only_ opportunity to put ourselves out there. After this part is over, they head to Hopes house. If we don't even introduce ourselves by then, we can kiss our chances goodbye. We don't have to join up with them now, but if we can somehow meet with them later and they already somewhat _know _us… I think we'll have a better shot."

Sophie looked away from Trinity. She had noticed lately, how her friend could be reckless and carefree one moment, and then serious the next. She supposed that, maybe, the overload of change was starting to get to her… no, to _them._

"Okay… but you're leading. You are the eldest, after all." Sophie gave Trinity a playful nudge to the side, and her friend smiled back.

"When have I ever done otherwise?" Trinity joked. The brown haired girl laughed before getting the hidden meaning, and quickly pursued and swatted her friend soon after.

Trinity was already on her way down the ladder; she had decided to do what the soldiers did in the underground and slid down instead of climbing. Sophie followed suit and both reached Hope's level in record timing.

"Okay, what's the plan?"

"I already told you; run around, scream like hell, shoot it up, and pretend to be more threatening than the boy who's about to pass out," Trinity answered while briskly walking towards the scene, though trying to stay out of view for the time being. Sophie had a doubtful face, but followed faithfully.

"I figured that you were going to be more elaborate, but okay…" The two snuck around the outskirts of the fight and gradually edged their way closer. When they were about fifteen yards from the monster, Trinity pulled Sophie behind a pillar. The brown haired girl was about to ask what they were waiting for when Trinity suddenly interrupted her.

"Give me your gun."

"W-what? Why? Your hand's all busted up," Sophie said, surprised at the sudden order.

"I don't care, give it to me. I'm a better shot anyways." Sophie put on a pouting face and reluctantly handed the stolen gun over. Trinity handled it with some difficulty, but eventually got it situated to the point that it didn't trouble her hand too much. She then briskly laid on the floor to the side of the pillar and brought the butt of the gun to her shoulder to take aim.

"I sure hope these guns are like the ones back home…" she thought aloud. A single shot rang out and the beast stopped what it was doing to look in their direction. Apparently, Hope wasn't even doing damage anymore, so his threat level was little to nothing. Trinity adjusted her aim so that, if she hit her mark, it would be near what she thought was the head.

"Sophie, go! Start running around near its feet. If it starts going after you, get out of range!" The addressed girl nodded, slightly panicked at having to go alone, but took off in the direction of the boss, if not a little to the side. Trinity pulled the trigger once again and another bullet whizzed through the air, hitting a few feet from her mark.

"Damn, I'm out of practice… knew I should have taken gun classes towards the end of training…" Trinity scolded herself, but nonetheless let out another few rounds, making sure to keep the thing distracted between her and Sophie. They repeated this pattern—shoot, distract, run, distract, and repeat. Halfway through her ammo, the monster let out a roar of frustration right before it started to glow.

"What is it doing?" Trinity questioned out loud. It then occurred to her that this beast's main element was fire, and the glow was starting to look like dangerous flames. Sophie hadn't seemed to notice, as her head was down and she was running around the creature's legs. Trinity's eyes widened.

"Sophie! Get out of there!" But the shout was in vain. Sophie was too far off, and Trinity cursed herself for letting the monster's attack charge this far.

"Sophie!" she called at the top of her lungs. Still no good.

"Argh! Damn it!" Hope had collapsed from exhaustion a while ago, still in the creature's range of fire, and Sophie still hadn't noticed the monster's charge.

_Where the hell are those two? _Trinity started to sprint towards the three beings, shouting at the top of her lungs, hoping Sophie would hear her.

"Sophie! Get back! You won't be able to take it! _SOPHIE!_" Trinity had made it to Hope and was kneeling down beside him.

_Damn it! He's out cold…_ She looked up. Sophie was frozen in shock, staring at how bright the creature had gotten and was trying to figure out why it was radiating light. Trinity was still too far off, and no matter how many times Trinity shouted, Sophie couldn't hear her.

"Come on, come on!" She couldn't seem to move fast enough. She didn't know why, but for some reason she had chosen to get Hope out of the way first, and managed to drag him by his shirt collar over to where Snow was. She hoped that that was far enough away that they wouldn't get affected by the blast. The charge felt like it had been going on for a few minutes, though in reality was probably about one. Knowing the average charge time, Trinity knew this was going to be no small blast. With that thought in her mind she took off after Sophie.

Everything started going in slow motion. Trinity was close enough to see the realization and fear cross her companion's eyes, but she couldn't get the warning out fast enough. The creature sucked in the radiation it had been emanating, and all went silent. Trinity allowed herself to believe that the charge was for some sort of buff, but kept running for Sophie, who had turned and started running.

A flash from behind them when they met up, and what sounded like an explosion not twenty-five yards away, was all the extra warning they got.

"Get down!" Trinity grabbed hold of Sophie's waist and tackled her to the ground, both of them landing on their stomachs and covering their heads with their hands. The explosion produced a spiraling fire that burnt the back of the hands, legs, and backs, also singeing their clothes. Both girls fought the urge to scream out in pain, but failed miserably, though it didn't matter as the sound of the outburst drowned out any other noise. Debris came falling down onto the pavement all around them, the bigger pieces missing them but the smaller ones left little marks, as if the girls had been hit with airsoft guns. Trinity resolved to biting her lip to kill her screams, and Sophie's own yelling turned into whimpers.

Neither of them moved nor spoke, not even after silence had taken over. It wasn't until one last piece of sharp metal came falling down that Trinity broke the silence. It had landed on her already injured hand.

"SON OF A BIT—" Sophie sat up and muffled Trinity's screams with her hand. A lone tear fell from the girl's blue eyes, but other than that she stood up, though very wobbly and with much difficulty. Both girls were breathing heavily, Trinity even more so when she collapsed, not able to hold herself up.

"What happened?" was all Sophie could say. She looked confused, and was rubbing the back of her slightly burnt hand. The girls had been fortunate and had gotten far enough away that they could escape without too serious of injuries, but that didn't make the pain any less.

"I think it got pissed off enough that it self-destructed in hopes of taking us out with it," Trinity replied, her eyes closing. She had a headache coming on, and the bright sun was _not _helping.

"That… that was too close for comfort." Trinity nodded in agreement, then smiled at her upcoming sarcasm.

"See what you get, for helping people?" she laughed weakly, clutching her hand to her chest.

Sophie let a small smile grace her lips, but otherwise was unaffected. She noticed Trinity grasping her injured hand.

"Hey… that really doesn't look too good, Trin." The girl opened her blue eyes and focused them on what her friend's green ones were looking at.

"What's a broken hand supposed to look like? Daffodils and daisies?" Sophie frowned.

"Don't think just because we are both in some pain right now that I won't kick your arse for your sass. Let me see your hand."

"No."

"Trin, let me see your hand," Sophie repeated, more sternly.

"No!" Trinity jerked away from Sophie's movement to grab at her.

"Damn it Trin, if we don't do something about that, it's going to be disfigured!"

"If you try to touch my hand again, _you_ are going to be disfigured!"

The two were too engulfed in their dispute that they didn't notice that they had both gained the strength to stand up and start waving fingers at each other. They also failed to notice a certain pair of female L'cie make their way out of an alley at full speed, and running to the two male L'cie passed out near the wall.

"I swear to _god_, woman, if you make a move to even _look_ at my hand again I will use my good hand to punch you square in the face!"

"Oh yeah, there's a bright idea, ruin the only hand you have left!"

"Ha! You just called yourself hard headed!" Sophie's eyes grew wide and her nostrils flared from anger.

"Trinity Anderson, you know that was _NOT _what I meant!"

"Then why'd you say it? Ow! Son of a bitch!"

Over where Lightning and Fang had arrived, neither heard the girls' quarrel. They were both too focused on the boys at their feet that they were having a hard time waking up.

"Hope, wake up. Come on, stay with us Hope," Lightning coaxed the silver haired teen into consciousness. He hissed at his soreness and sat up, Lightning with a look of relief on her face.

"What happened?" Hope rubbed the back of his aching head, flinching at a sharp pain.

"We found you here lying next to Snow, both of you unconscious. I was hoping that _you'd_ tell _me _what happened." Lightning helped the boy up, and looked at him warily. Hope caught this look.

"I… Operation NORA… it didn't work out." Lightning saw the look on Hope's face as he handed back the dagger. It was full of understanding, forgiveness, and regret… but she felt the regret was towards his thoughts of revenge, and not the failure to achieve them. She hugged him.

"It's okay Hope. I'll protect you." Her arms wrapped tightly around the boy, and he let her, but he didn't feel he deserved to return the hug of comfort. Not yet.

"I… me to. I'll try to keep you safe too." Lightning pulled away and gave the closest to a genuine smile Hope had seen. She then playfully and gently flicked his face, and the two shared a quiet laugh.

"Excuse me." The two looked over at the Pulsian woman. "There's still this one. He's alive, but he won't wake up." The other L'cie joined up with the tanned skinned, raven haired woman, and Lightning knelt down to help Fang pick him up.

"Yeah, he's alive alright," she laughed dryly. "He's too stubborn to die." Something then occurred to Light.

"Hope, if you didn't do this to him, did PSICOM…? How'd both of you get knocked out?" Lightning asked, something not fitting into the puzzle in her mind. She knew both of them were capable of handling foot soldiers and even a few elites. So how _did _they end up they way they were found?

"Well… long story short, we kinda fell off a building after an explosion, and then that big thing you guys just killed threw Snow into the wall. I… I fought for as long as I could, and then you two showed up… Didn't you see me pass out? You were right there," the boy gave the two a confused look, and they returned it.

"Kid, we just got here."

"Yeah… Hope we didn't see any monster." All three of them exchanged glances.

"But then, who saved me?" They became very quiet, trying to think of a possible explanation. Had Sazh and Vanille showed up, and for whatever reason, left? That was unlikely. The cavalry wasn't around, and they would have helped out the two males if they were involved in the rescue. Those were the only people who would have helped them, but then… who…?

"You idiot! I told you not to touch it!"

"Ow! You hit me!"

"I told you I would, what did you think I was lying? You should know by now that I don't swear to god unless I _mean it_!"

All the L'cie that were awake turned their heads in the direction of the yelling, and could just barely make out the image of two people, girls from the sound of their voices. They were just a ways away behind all the heaping scraps of metal, and were obviously arguing over something.

"Are those…?"

"What are people doing here, of all places? I thought they were being cleared out," Fang thought out loud. Lightning and Hope nodded in agreement.

"Hey, Light, you don't suppose that they could be the ones that… saved me, do you?" Hope asked the pink haired soldier. She didn't respond, but started walking in their direction.

"I doubt it, but if they've been here long maybe they can tell us who did. That is, if they don't run away." Hope looked after her, and ran to catch up to hear the information first hand.

"Oh, right. I'll catch up with you, just give me a minute," Fang said sarcastically, annoyed at being left behind. Fang hoisted Snow into a position so that she could help him along easier, and went to get in on the conversation that was ahead. Even if they did run away, she didn't want to miss the hilarious looks that would undoubtedly be on their faces.

**A/N: I am SO sorry. Sort of a cliff hanger, and they didn't really meet, but it's obvious they will next chapter, right? And Trinity personally dragged Hope by the shirt… THE SHIRT. To safety :D That has to count for something, right?**

**Anyways, hope you enjoyed, tune in next time to see Lightning get her socks blown off by how two human girls "beat" that whatever it was called (I looked up what it's called, but putting the name here is pointless because I'm sure not many of you know the name anyways.)**

**So go ahead, leave a review. Are the canon characters still in character? Yes? No? Tell me if they are or aren't and if they aren't tell me what I'm doing wrong!**

**Are my OCs mary-sues yet? If for some reason they are, tell me, and help me to NOT make them ones.**

**Thanks for reading, lovelies! Leave a review if you loved/liked/enjoyed it :D**


	3. Chapter 3

A/N:

Thanks for the positive reviews!

**Juwpiter081, people that review like you really get my spirits up. It means a lot when someone thinks a story is going to be cliché, mary-suey, and all that boringly bad stuff, and then end up liking it :) Thanks for the complements and review, as for the OCs being involved in a romance… I have been thinking. I have something that I've been wanting to do, but I don't think many people will like it, which is why I am unsure of putting it into this story.**

**You can message me if you are interested in my thoughts, and I'd really appreciate the feedback if I could get some :)**

Anyways, since I replied to my other reviewer via PM, I think it's time that you can actually start reading. Enjoy!

One more thing though… I really don't like the way the first part of this came out, just thought I'd let you know in case you shared the feeling…

D.G: Final Fantasy XIII

Chapter 3: Meetings

Trinity and Sophie were too caught up in their argument to even comprehend that they had an audience. A conscious, yet expected, audience. The pink haired woman and silver haired teen had taken to watching for a brief moment behind a pile of scrap metal. Lightning was more than a little curious as to who had managed to save two Pulse L'cie. Even more frustrating to the woman was that she couldn't imagine _why _someone would want to save Pulse L'cie. Her eyes narrowed at the two teen appearing girls arguing, not fifteen feet away. They had been arguing about something ridiculous. What, the ex-soldier couldn't say, nor did she care, but she wanted to be sure the two wouldn't run away. Her brand was hidden, as was the teen boy's beside her, but Fang and Snow's brands were out for the world to see.

_I need to confront them before Fang catches up. Ugh, what are we doing? This is wasting time that we don't have! _Lightning noticeably frowned at the thought, causing Hope to send her a worried and confused look. She ignored it and stepped around the remains of some metal machine, and made her way over to the two girls, a hand on her gunblade just in case they decided to scream or alert PSICOM of their whereabouts in anyway. Her frown deepened when she still went unnoticed.

"Trin! How can you be so stubborn? Just look at it! It already looks like something ate it, digested it, and crapped it back out again! How does it not hurt? Don't you want it to heal?"

"I realize it's a mess, it hurts like _hell_, and that's _exactly _why I don't want _you _touching it!"

The woman's blue eyes looked fiercely at the two. How could they not notice her?

_Must be _some _argument… no, they're probably just unobservant, _she thought, a hint of sarcasm tinting her inner voice. She stood there right behind the girl wearing a jacket, trying to come up with a way to ask them her question without scaring them off. She was brought out of her musings by a sound… or a lack thereof.

The two girls before her had stopped arguing, the one she had stood behind was looking at her wide-eyed while the other held an annoyed expression. Lightning's own eyes became expressionless if not irritated.

"What are you two kids doing here?" she asked, though to the girls it sounded more like a statement. The girl in the weird red shirt scoffed and muttered something under her breath, causing Lightning to give a glare.

_At least they haven't run off yet… _

"Answer the question. All civilians were to be evacuated." Lightning crossed her arms over her chest and shifted her weight onto one leg. "Be swift with your answer, we're in a hurry," she added as Hope joined her.

The two girls looked at each other, and the darker haired one shrugged. The brown haired girl turned back to Lightning, looking a little nervous.

"We were… um… escaping?" the younger looking of the two finally gave the ex-soldier a reply. Lightning didn't look convinced. The girl turned back to her companion who gave an encouraging gesture.

"… from PSICOM?" the girl finished. It was obvious the girl was lying, and Lightning eyes turned to slits. What were they hiding? Lightning huffed. Whatever it was, it wasn't her problem. She just wanted to know who saved Hope, at the very least to ease their minds. If they were lucky, they would find out they had a new ally.

"Did you see the Ushumgal Subjugator that was just here? It had knocked me out… do you… maybe know which way the people who defeated it went?" Hope surprised Lightning by voicing the unspoken question, and the two girls glanced at each other again.

"So that's what that thing was called?" the one in the red finally spoke.

"You saw it?" Lightning stepped forward. Maybe they would find their new ally after all.

"Yeah. It about killed all three of us. Damn thing got so pissed off it self-destructed, I didn't even know it could do that." The girl with the black hair crossed her arms over her chest and looked a little pouty. Hope noticed her eyeing her injured hand, but decided to go on with the questioning.

"Oh, so do you know which way the person who saved us went?" The older girl looked at him confused.

"You either saw where this person went or you didn't, which is it?" Lightning demanded, getting annoyed. They needed to get moving, Snow was injured and PSICOM was bound to be on them any minute now.

"There… was no 'person who went which way'…" the brown haired girl trailed off.

"But you said there were three of you, where'd the other person go?" Hope asked. He was getting exasperated as well. He knew just as well as Lightning that they had to get moving. But, he also knew that they needed all the help they could get.

"There is no other person. By three, I meant Sophie, me, and you." The gestured at girl, now known as Sophie, nodded. Hope looked puzzled. It wasn't possible that these two girls could defeat that thing when he couldn't, was it?

"You mean to tell us that _you _killed the monster?" Lightning asked skeptically.

"Absolutely not. I already told you, it self-destructed," said the yet-to-be-named girl. Lightning 'tch'ed and turned away, then towards Hope.

"We need to get moving, there's no use staying longer waiting on someone that doesn't exist." She started to walk away before Hope spoke up.

"Then you two saved me?" Both of the girls nodded. "How?"

"Well… I'm assuming Trin dragged you out of harm's way before the thing exploded. You would have shared some of our nasty burns, otherwise," Sophie answered, showing him one of her still-red arms.

"But you still haven't answered why," Hope pointed out. His legs were shifting weight in a restless manner; they had spent too much time in one spot, but he really wanted this last bit of information. Lightning had turned around to listen as well.

_Hurry this up, Hope. Fang's almost here with Snow…_

"Um… because we… didn't want to watch you die? Isn't it common knowledge that letting a young kid die is a bad thing?" They were lying again, both the L'cie knew it, but they had to go. They had wasted too much time already.

"Right… well, thanks," Hope said as he started off after the already-in-motion Lightning. The two girls didn't follow them and soon enough the two L'cie came up to Fang and Snow, whom were still on their way over.

"What, that's it? They didn't run?" Fang asked, adjusting Snow's arm around her shoulder.

"They didn't see our brands, and I'm assuming they didn't see us on the screens when we were surrounded by PSICOM. So no, they didn't run," Lightning said as she passed, not breaking stride.

"Did they tell you who killed the thing the kid was talking about?"

"Apparently it self-destructed," Light replied over her shoulder.

"Really? Why?"

"I don't know."

"Who saved the kid?" Lightning turned around in one swift movement.

"I. Don't. Know," she replied in a slow, annoyed tone. The two girls had lied too much in their explanation that she didn't know what to believe. Fang looked back at the two girls who had started walking towards a nearby pillar. Then she smirked.

"Here, you take this one, and I'm going to see if I can't get it outta them. You go on ahead, I'll catch up," Fang said suddenly. She didn't give Light time to respond, just let Snow fall onto Lightning. She then promptly walked off to avoid any disagreement.

_She better not do anything stupid that will get us caught… _Light narrowed her eyes at the retreating woman. "Come on." Hope turned to her as she spoke and nodded as they both set out, leaving the Pulsian temporarily behind.

_I wonder if they'll scream when they see my brand... They'll probably start complaining about how I'll taint them or some non-sense. That is, if they don't run away to warn the Soldiers first. Bunch of cowards, these people… still, might be best to hide it for now… _Fang thought as she approached the two girls. One was leaning up against the pillar and the other sitting on the ground at her side. Fang approached from an angle that hid her, allowing the woman to eaves drop as she made her way over.

"You think they bought it?" the one sitting asked. The one standing looked at her companion with an unbelieving look on her face and scoffed.

"No, _I _didn't even believe it. You couldn't come up with something better than that?"

"Well it's not like I could just tell them the truth, they'd think us insane!"

"You couldn't tell them that we saw a kid who needed help, we just so happened to be rebels, and shot and screamed at the thing until it got so mad that it decided to blow up?" The one standing once again scoffed.

"If you had a planned out explanation, why'd you want _me _to give one?"

"I don't really know…"

_Well, I guess that answers a few questions… Then again, I'm not too sure if that is a lie or a truth. Ah well, might as well ask._

"Hey!" The girls turned around at the accent of the Pulsian woman and instantly, both mouths were sealed.

"I hear you lied to my travel buddies over there. So, start talking. I want the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." Fang crossed her arms, careful to point her brand away from the two so they couldn't see it.

"What do you mean, lied? Lied to who?" the standing girl spoke, and took a few steps around the pillar to face Fang.

"That woman in the soldier uniform that was just over here. She asked a few choice questions and you lied. Save me the time and just answer me with the truth." Fang smirked at the look of surprise on the girls face, though something seemed off about it.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

_Going to be difficult, eh? Careful now, this is a dangerous game you're playing at, here…_

"Don't you? Might I refresh your memory, then? Sunshine over there asked who saved the kid she was with, tell me otherwise." The two said nothing.

"You saved him?"

"We already told them that. Yes, we did," the younger girl said as she got off the ground and stood next to her friend. "And that's _not _a lie."

"How?"

"We told them that, too."

"Humor me," said Fang. Her smirk never left her face. She was teasing the girls and at the same time interrogating them. Not only did that take skill, but it was fun as hell.

"I noticed the… Umsh… gal… Subja-whatever was acting weird, and figured it was about to do something that would hurt. A lot. What's his face was a little too close to the thing for comfort, so I dragged him over to the other guy before the thing went BOOM," the black haired girl finished using hand motions to act out an explosion. This amused Fang, for obvious reasons.

"Oh yeah? Why'd the thing go _boom _again? I think you neglected that part."

"Wow, you and pink-hair really don't collaborate well, do you? I swear, I've explained this before." No one talked for a minute, and the silence was disturbing. Fang and the girl facing her were locked in a stare-down, and the brown-haired girl stole glances between the two.

"Um… right… You know, I don't believe we caught your name?" Fang looked away from her competitor to size up the younger of the two.

"And I don't believe half of what you say. How do you suggest we fix this little lack of belief?" The girl looked away, not willing to get sucked into a staring contest. The other girl suddenly spoke.

"My name's Trinity, that's Sophie. You wanna know what we did? Fine. I don't really believe we have anything to hide. I shot at the machine-monster from behind this pillar while she ran around screaming profanities at it. We did our best to swap its attention between us, keeping its attention off the kid. We did it because we find it disturbing to just sit back and watch something kill anyone, especially children. We didn't evacuate with the rest of the civilians because we didn't want to. No, we don't have any family that we should be with at the moment, and despite what pink-hair said we _aren't _kids. I'm twenty, she's nineteen. And to draw everything to a close, my hand hurts like hell because I stupidly snapped a PSICOM soldier's neck and I'd appreciate it if we could hurry this up. Now, you know our truth. Your turn."

Fang's mouth was slightly open in surprise, caught halfway from a snide retort and speechlessness. Sophie seemed no better off, taken back by her friend's revealing confession. Fang mentally shook her head at the sudden revelation before responding.

"Alright then, name's Fang. 'Pink-hair' as you like to call her, would be Lightning. 'Kid' would be Hope, 'other guy's' name is Snow. Now that we're all acquainted and best of friends, I have to ask… what possessed you to take out a soldier? I find it hard to believe two young girls are rebelling against the highest authority just for the hell of it."

"Well aren't we the hypocrite? Are you or are you not travelling with an apparent fifteen year old, along with two others who can't be too much older than us, taking out PSICOM left and right? What's the reasoning behind that?" Trinity inquired, taking a step forward in an attempt to intimidate Fang.

"I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you." Fang also took a step forward, calling Trinity out. The girl narrowed her eyes and gritted her teeth. Sophie once again found herself nervously glancing between the two, and once again was the one to break the silence.

"So anyway, your 'travel buddies' seemed to be in a hurry, why are you not with them?" Without breaking eye contact, Fang answered,

"I run fast, I can catch up."

"Okay, but _why _are you hanging back?"

"I don't take kindly to liars. Figured I could get some info outta you, and what do you know? I did."

"So why are you still here?" Fang didn't answer right away, but eventually her reply came.

"You're hiding something, and I want to know what it is." Sophie opened her mouth to speak but Trinity cut her off.

"I could say the same for you, but seeing as you stopped remembering to hide your tattoo a while back, I think it's safe to say the cat is out of the bag, no?" Trinity gave the smallest of smirks when Fangs eyes widened ever so slightly at her mistake, but it sank back into a grimace when Fang's expression went back to its composed state.

"So you know. You gonna scream? Run and tell? Rat us out? Or are you going to just rant my ears off?" Fang's own mischievous smirk returned, but she didn't get the reaction she was expecting.

"If I haven't done any of those since I figured you out a few minutes ago, why the hell would I start now?"

"… Fair enough. I gotta say, it's about time I found one of you Cocoon dwellers that actually has a spine," Fang said, the last part more to herself than to them. She broke the eye-contact and turned around, seemingly deep in thought.

"So, you saved the kid and held your own against the baddie, did you? And you aren't scared shitless of us being L'cie?" To both inquiries, the girls nodded in confidence. "Have you had any training or did you teach yourself to fight, assuming you know how?"

"We've had… 'training', yeah. Why?" Sophie replied. She tilted her head in question, making her look like a curious pup.

"It's not often one comes across a person such as one of you two, much less a pair. So here's the thing. You obviously hate authority, ain't afraid of L'cie, and to top it off, are trained. We, on the other hand, have a grand total of maybe two L'cie sympathizers. You know what would really piss PSICOM off? If you upped that number to three… or four, depending on how you look at it," Fang finished, turning around once again to face the girls, only to find Trinity smirking much like she was.

"What would you be implying?" the girl asked in a teasing tone. Fang shook her head and circled around to the girl's other side.

"Boy, and here I thought I was being obvious. Come on, we've kept grumpy waiting long enough, I'd say." Sophie let out a small squeak as Fang began pushing the two forward.

"I've been told not to talk with strangers, much less go anywhere with them… Especially if they are driving an old, beat up, rusty white van," Trinity said after a wry laugh.

"You crossed that line a _long _time ago… and I have no idea what a van is," Fang replied over Trinity's shoulder, shoving them along a little faster. After the two started actually walking on their own, she ran around them and started walking backwards, facing the girls.

"Come on you two delinquents! Felix Heights awaits!" With that she turned around and started running off in the direction the ex-soldier, teen, and NORA leader went. Trinity shook her head.

"She's nuts if she thinks I'm running the whole way…" she muttered. Miraculously, Fang seemed to catch it.

"I am not below leaving you behind if you are too lazy to run! Besides, don't you want your hand cleaned up?" she yelled back over her shoulder, not stopping her sprint. Trinity sighed.

"Well, I guess this is what we trained for…" She clinched her throbbing hand close to her chest and started to jog after the Pulsian woman, gradually speeding up to an awkward sprint. Sophie raced ahead in an attempt to catch up with the older woman. The blue-sari clad woman turned her head at the sound of quickly approaching feet and chuckled somewhat darkly to herself.

_You girls have no idea what you're getting yourselves into… _In a small act of mercy Fang slowed down and allowed both girls to catch up before all three set out for their next destination.

A/N: Quite a bit shorter than my other chapters, but oh well! Hope you enjoyed it, don't forget to read and review. Oh wait you already read… okay then, review, my lovelies! Loved it? Hated it? Neutral? Tell me in a review!

Oh yeah, and I've made a few changes… there won't be Hope/Vanille romance, but they will seem a lot closer, sort of like best friends. I still plan on putting Fang and Light together, but I'm still trying to work out how I'll do that. Anyways, thanks for reading, see ya next time!


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Ahh… I have no excuse for this being late. I also have no excuse for not updating another account's story for like… six months. Oh well :)**

Mr steve jr, thanks, though I'm a little confused by what you mean.

Juwpiter081, I was going for a similarity between Trinity and Fang, good to see I made it obvious! lol

**There will be a bit of a change from now on… because of how I want to take this story, it's going to change from third person point of view to first. It will be from Trinity's point of view, the reason will be clear as day soon enough.**

**Also, I'm putting a poll up in my profile (taking down the one I had, because I realized it's way too early for that poll). This will ask YOUR opinion on how you want some of the characters to be paired. I know for a fact that Lightning and Fang will be together, I'm going to try my damnest to make that work, but there are also some other things that I want to try/need to know what you want, and I want to see if it's okay with you readers. Someone asked me about Sazh, and honest to god I can't think of a suitable canon pairing in this story for him. Sorry :(**

**I've talked long enough, you can read now :D**

D.G: Final Fantasy XIII

Chapter 4: Confusion and Aggression

The running dragged on forever, I fell behind more than once. Ever since we had gotten here, my head has been cloudy, and not just because the majority of my memories were gone. I find it hard to explain but it was almost impossible for me to focus if the situation wasn't important enough. That's why my legs weren't working; my mind was elsewhere, while physically I was still running. By elsewhere, I mean in a void where everything is white and fuzzy. Blank. The main reason why I kept getting pulled back to reality was the constant throbbing my hand kept giving off. I looked down at the swollen appendage and was appalled. No matter how many times I looked at it, I couldn't get used to how utterly disgusting it looked.

_Hopefully Hope or Light will be kind enough to heal it… it's probably going to go with Hope. I don't think Light likes me. She doesn't really like anyone. Except Hope. And Serah. And later Snow and Fang and everyone else. Okay, right now she doesn't like anyone but Hope later she likes everyone in the group. Including me and Sophie? Huh. That ought to be an interesting development. Damn it, I'm doing it again!_

For what felt like the thousandth time in a short period of maybe ten minutes my head was pulled out of its void-surrounded musings and into the city of Palumpolum. Just in time too, I had nearly tripped over some debris.

This isn't like me, I'm usually the focused, serious, down to earth one. Why is my head so foggy? Everything seems a little backwards, and—

"—Oomf!" I collided with something… or perhaps someone is the better term. Whoever it was we both gasped as my momentum conveyed into the other and we fell into a heap on the floor.

"Trin! Get off!" a familiar voice all but shouted into my eardrum. My hand instinctively flew to my ear to shield it from the noise and I rolled off of Sophie with her helpful, though a bit painful, shove.

"Ah… you don't need to be so loud, I'm right here," I said as I stood up, rubbing my assaulted ear with my good hand and supporting the injured around my middle. My eyes were squeezed shut in an attempt to block out both the pain from my hand, ear, and left over shock from the collision.

"You aren't very good with your legs, are you?" I heard Fang say, though with my eyes tightly closed I couldn't pinpoint where she was. The remark was laced with sarcasm and I could practically see the mocking smirk behind my closed lids.

"Keep talking, soon you won't be either," I retorted before I realized what I said. Luckily Fang was more of a laid back type and took the threat more as a lighthearted joke than what it really was. She chuckled and then I heard three claps that sounded like something connecting with something hollow. I opened my eyes and turned around. We were at a house, and Fang had just knocked on the door.

Oh... Duh.

For a minute we waited, while I looked away from the building and skyward, my eyes squinted to block out the sun… or the artificial sun made by a Fal'cie. I heard Sophie's clothing shift before her hand was placed on my shoulder, causing me to turn around to see what she wanted. She said nothing, she didn't need to. Her face said it all. When you travel with someone for years, a survival buddy, travel partner if you will, you tend to know more about them than they do. Sophie and I, like many other travel partners I'm sure, developed a silent communication. I couldn't quite remember why we needed this communication, the memories were fuzzy, but obviously it had to do with survival. The look she gave me then, for instance, was the dreaded 'We need to talk' look. I studied her face a moment longer to see if there was anything else I was missing when the door opened behind her. At first it was just a crack, but after a female voice hollered 'It's Fang', it opened all the way.

"Took you long enough—" The opened door revealed a certain pink haired L'cie, and from the looks of it a startled one.

Heh, heh, Lightning is shocked… the phrase works in more ways than one.

She paused blocking the door way before speaking again, "What are they doing here?" Her voice sounded cold, as always when she was on guard. I tried my best to hold back a sarcastic remark, but when she turned her glare from Fang to Sophie and I, I couldn't help myself.

"Seeing as you have a killer glare, I'd say it's because we have a death wish." Sophie's foot contacted mine and I jumped back too little too late to save myself the pain. Damned heavy soled boots…

"Easy there, Light's not the one you want to be messing with," Fang said as she stepped around Lightning and entered the house. I hopped over to Sophie and put my hand on her shoulder to steady myself. Those shoes of hers must have been real heavy duty, I don't think she meant to 'break' my foot but damn it hurt.

"Soph, I'm running out of usable limbs," I said, using minor theatrics to make myself sound pathetic.

"Yeah, all that wooden armor and not an inch of it has helped you so far," she said dryly. I glared at her and removed my good hand from her shoulder to take a swat at her head. But, she walked forward, causing me to almost lose my balance. I found it again with my shoulder against a nearby wall next to the door.

"You are such an ass…" I murmured and looked up, expecting to see Sophie standing in the doorway. My eyes widened to see not Sophie, but Lightning, having not moved since she opened the door. And I had just called her an ass… more or less. She was still glaring at me, even more so now than before. I blinked a few times to clear my surprise before clearing my throat and attempting to enter the residence using the walls as support.

"Excuse me," I muttered low enough that only she could hear. She 'tch'ed or whatever it is that she does and moved ever so slightly to the right. I willed my face to become emotionless in an effort to not showcase my annoyance at the small entry way, but nevertheless made my way through the threshold. I heard the door shut behind me shortly and Lightning seemed to speed past me as she entered a different room. I sighed, not liking the temporary disabilities.

I heard voices in the room Lightning had went in, but none of them sounded like Sophie. I assumed that was the room they had placed Snow in. The rest of the house was pretty much quiet, which was going to make finding Sophie a pain… literally. My good leg was starting to cramp up from hopping on just the one, and since my good hand was guiding me using the walls, my injured one was throbbing from the lack of support.

Who'd have thought out of the two of us I'd be the only one to sustain all the injuries?

My eyes snapped up from the floor when I heard Sophie's voice coming from just around the corner. I took one last hop in her direction before I stopped short.

"Ow! Cramp, cramp! Pain!" I scream-whispered as I slid down the wall and grasped my calf.

"Son of a… Sophie! You caused this! I need your shoulder!" I shouted towards where her voice had come from. The small, almost non-existent amount of chatter in what I assumed to be the living room stopped, and soon she and Fang rounded the corner. I glared at my friend, and she took in my appearance on the ground. When none of us spoke, I broke the silence.

"The next store I find, I'm buying you softer shoes," I stated as I continued to glare. Comprehension crossed her face and her mouth formed an 'O' shape. A moment later she was guiding me into the living room and to a couch, to which I happily took the chance to sit on. Sophie took the spot next to me, and Fang sat on an adjacent couch. I let out my breath as I sank into the seat and resisted the urge to tear my shoe off and check out the damage. Instead, I lolled my head back and allowed myself to genuinely relax into the couch.

"So… how goes it?" I asked, my eyes drooping closed. I crossed the leg attached to the injured foot over my good leg, and laid my bad hand in my lap, hopefully hidden to prying eyes. I didn't like the ugly thing making everyone think it was a liability… which it was, but no one needed to know.

"How goes what?" I heard Fang ask back. From the general silence throughout the house, I figured Hope had already had the little talk with his father and that the majority of the occupants were catching their second wind. However, I wasn't sure if Snow had 'fessed-up' yet. And, thanks to my lack of memory, I wasn't too sure of this whole scene either. All I knew were the basics; Hope came here with the gang. They rest up and Hope makes nice with his dad. Snow confesses to something that I never really understood, and next thing you know PSICOM, led by what's his face, ruins the moment. That's what I had, and it bugged me that I couldn't remember the next hour or so in detail.

"Where are we?" I elaborated, already knowing the answer. When we were being trained in the… ugh, I couldn't remember what it was called. Where ever we had been for the last few years of our lives, they told us to not give away anything. In our 'new homes', if the so-called locals got suspicious of us knowing more than we let on, it could… well, all they said was 'end badly', or at least that's all I remembered. I figure that means we have to ask question early on to things we already know, so that we won't get any weird looks from the group for knowing things we shouldn't.

"Weren't you paying attention on the way over? We're at the kid's house. I think Light said he had a talk with his Dad, and that we can rest here until it's time to move on. Speaking of rest, let's have a look at that hand of yours—"

"Will everyone please stop wanting to touch the hand? Here, look at it. It's a hand, it's broken, there is no need to touch it," I said, getting out of my comfortable position on the couch to twist away from the Pulsian. At some point, she had gotten up from the other sofa and sat next to Sophie and I without my noticing. And, since Sophie and I had taken the 'love seat', the couch was getting pretty crowded. I edged closer to Sophie to put more space between myself and the offender, and Fang smirked. Sophie just sat there, getting squished between me and the arm of the couch.

"How do you plan on getting it fixed, then?" Fang asked, mockingly making herself comfortable on the small, packed couch. I tossed around the idea of going over to the bigger sofa but it occurred to me that I'd have to hop over to it, and that would just make her laugh. I didn't need anyone in their group laughing at me.

I thought about her question, trying to find a topic that would eventually lead to one of the L'cie medics to healing my hand and foot. I was having trouble finding one; I never was an on-the-spot thinker… I don't think.

Fang took my silence as resignation and held her hand out expectantly. I looked at it as if it were a poisonous snake just waiting to strike, to which Fang rolled her eyes.

"I won't bite, just let me have a look," Fang teased, a bit impatiently I might add. I sighed in defeat and surrendered my hand into her waiting one. I obviously didn't need to look at the swollen appendage, so I looked away and focused on something else. I felt Fang turn my hand over from side to side in her examination, and after a moment she let go of it. "How the hell did you manage that? All you did was punch a soldier, didn't you?"

I pulled my hand back into my lap before nodding. I gave a dry laugh before adding, "Adrenaline is a bitch." She chuckled as well.

"Ain't it?"

"So, what's you looking at the nasty thing got to do with fixing it up? Forgive me if I'm wrong, but you don't look like the doctor-type."

"Look at you, being all formal with your apologies. They're called medics, not doctors, and I'm not. Light is." I felt my face become all screwy at the thought of Lightning mending my injuries. I couldn't see it happening.

"Um… no offence to Lightning, but… I think I'll wait for a real doctor, or someone who doesn't hold grudges…" I thought about that for a second, and then added, "I mean, someone who doesn't have a grudge against me." Yeah, Hope could hold a mean grudge. I had almost forgotten. Fang looked at me.

"What? You and sunshine friends already?" she shook her head when I gave her a sheepish look. "She took that whole 'death glare' thing to heart, did she?"

"No… More like I accidently called her an ass…" She quirked an eyebrow.

"How do you accidentally call someone an ass?" I shrugged defensively.

"I thought I was talking to her," I gestured to my friend beside me, "but when I looked up Sophie was gone and Lightning was still in the doorway," I finished. Sophie, who had been unusually silent, chuckled. I glared at her, even though she was looking out the window and couldn't see.

"Oh well, if you're tagging along you'll have a while to either make it up to or explain yourself to her," the Pulsian told me. She then let her head fall back and she closed her eyes.

"Maybe… I can't see myself trying to explain something so stupid though. And she strikes me more as the type of person you have to prove yourself before she deems you worthy." I crossed my arms, being careful not to jostle my hand. That remark got a chuckle out of Fang.

"You got all that out of the few minutes you've known her? I'm impressed. If you're fighting is as good as your reasoning skills you've got nothing to worry about." More like my reading the internet and game playing skills, but I wasn't going to tell her my reasoning skills sucked.

"Right… anyways, is there another medic in your group?"

"Hm… not that I know of. My friend Vanille is probably the best medic you can find, but… she's not here." My face fell. Apparently, she didn't know Hope was a medic. That was probably the result of her not fighting the monster alongside him and Light. She would have known, otherwise. Speaking of the pink headed ex-soldier, she knew Hope was a medic. As did Hope himself, but I wasn't about to have a conversation with Lightning and I had no idea where Hope was. I still have to keep up the oblivious façade too.

"Vanille?" I asked, trying to sound curious. "Who's she?"

"Ah… I would call her my best friend, but that would be an understatement." She opened her eyes and looked between Sophie and me. "Who are you two to each other?"

I turned and looked at Sophie, who seemed to be deep in thought and not paying attention. "I guess it's hard to explain. We grew up together, so I guess that kind of makes us sisters, but not. It's so simple to us but it's complicated, if you know what I'm trying to say." Fang nodded.

"There you go, that's me and Vanille." My eyes trailed away to look at nothing in particular. I had never thought of them like Sophie and I were.

"Oh… where is she?" Fang sighed and got off the couch.

"Your guess is as good as mine, at this point," I doubted that, "But if all goes well, we'll meet up soon enough." Fang, in sharp contrast to her earlier, tired demeanor, looked restless as she started to walk around the room, nothing in particular catching her interest. Must have been the talk about Vanille.

"No worries, you'll find her," Sophie said, her first words since sitting down.

"I have no doubt about that. Ain't nobody who's going to stop me. Not PSICOM, no one." I heard a small click of a button and then the voice of a news announcer. The T.V. went on to inform the populace of the 'L'cie situation'. I tuned it out, and once again let my head fall back and allowed my eyes to slip closed. To my annoyance, not a minute later I felt a nudge to my side. I cracked an eye open to see Sophie getting up and beckoning me to get up and follow her. My eyes followed her into a dark room that appeared vacant, and before following I checked to make sure we wouldn't have any eavesdroppers. I had a feeling outside ears shouldn't hear the conversation my friend and I were about to share, in case her going into a secluded room wasn't an indication.

She shut the door behind me as I limped in to what looked like a guest bedroom. I quickly sat on the bed and looked at her expectantly as she started pacing in front of me. Suddenly she stopped and faced me, arms crossed.

"Something's been off ever since we got here, and we need to sort it out now," Sophie stated, a look of seriousness that rarely crossed her features. I furrowed my eyebrows, not knowing what she was talking about. Well… I might have had an idea, but I was still having a hard time focusing.

"You haven't noticed? Come on Trin, it's been obvious. I've been thinking about it since we got here, even more so since we came to Hope's house." She looked at me, probably expecting me to have a 'Oh yeah!' moment, but I still was pretty clueless. I had a vague idea, like the thought had crossed my mind before, but I couldn't quite catch it. She scoffed and turned away.

"We've both been acting out of character since we got here. I've seen it in. You're usually more serious, cautious and don't take any crap. I'm usually the exact opposite. But ever since we got here, save the first night, it's almost as if our personalities have switched. I mean, there have been moments where you were stern at the things I've been doing, and I was reckless once or twice, but other than that we are completely out of character. Haven't you noticed?" I blinked, showing her I pretty much hadn't.

"And that's another thing! You're usually the observant one. How could you not notice Light or Fang when they snuck up on us, after the fight? I knew they were there, and I thought you did too, and when you didn't acknowledge them, I played along. What's up with you? Hell, what's up with me?" I said nothing. I thought it best to let her keep going with her mini rant, even though it wasn't helping my headache.

"And then what was with Light and Fang showing up late? Hope would have died. If we weren't there, he would have _DIED_. Call me conceited, but if we weren't there… I mean… what the hell? That wasn't supposed to happen!" She started breathing in huffs, and I took the moment to throw in my two cents.

"But he didn't die. We helped save him."

"That's not the point! We were supposed to be placed in Final Fantasy XIII. And as it were, Hope shouldn't have needed us to save him. Aren't you the least worried? If the time stream changed Light and Fang being late, what else will have changed?" She paused and pinched the bridge of her nose while her other hand was placed defiantly on her hip. Seems I wasn't the only one with the headache.

"So help me, Trin, if we manage to mess up this world I won't be able to live with myself."

I honestly didn't know what she was worried about. So what, Light and Fang were a bit late. The end result was the same, and that's because we were here. Maybe the universe shifted just that tiny bit so that we would be included in their little adventure. Looking back, that was just wishful thinking. And said thinking was being done with a brain on half capacity, and the rest of it was trying to fight off a migraine.

"Relax, Soph. We're here now, and for all we know our minds made that little difference in the transfer so that we would have an 'in'." She didn't look convinced. Then her eyes snapped open wide and pointed at me.

"See! Right there! That's something I would say! This whole conversation is backwards. You should be lecturing me, and I should be the one sitting on the bed looking all solemn." I raised a hand defensively.

"Hey, I'm on the bed because you killed my foot. I'm not too happy about my hand, either." She rolled her eyes.

"On the way over here I noticed a far away look on your face. Like… you weren't even paying attention to where you were going. You looked like you were day dreaming. While you were running. That's something you have never done before, you were always so focused. I remember that much. Not even I could pull that off." She sat down next to me, bouncing the bed a little. Her head was bowed and if I had to guess, I'd say she was playing the last day's scenes in her head.

"Well… I didn't pull it off. I plowed into you, remember?" I said, trying to lighten the mood. She just shook her head.

"I'm scared Trin. We've been here for a day, and already something is out of whack, and it was something we didn't even intentionally cause. What happens when we start actually _trying _to change things?" My friend looked up into my eyes, and I saw genuine fear. I managed a small reassuring smile.

"You know, our personalities aren't _all _that messed up. You always were the big softie." I playfully nudged her, but she directed her gaze back to the floor. "…And don't worry about it. As cheesy as this sounds, whatever happens we'll go through it together. We promised each other that the day we signed up for what's-its-name. Hell, even before then, when we set off on our own." I leaned down to have a better look at her face. "You know… nothing seems so scary when you are going through it with someone else. Kind of like a haunted house…" She laughed.

"You've never been to a haunted house." She returned my gaze and continued, "And your right… that is cheesy." We giggled quietly in the last innocent moment that we would have for a long time. Afterwards we sat in silence, not looking at anything in particular, but our minds on anything and everything.

"I was kind of hoping that getting this off my chest would ease the headache I've had since the sirens started going off," Sophie suddenly said.

"You too, huh?" she nodded.

"Ah, well… I'm going to categorize that in 'Side-effects leaving 'Portalia' might give', along with being bipolar, fuzzy-minded, bad foot wear, revealing clothes, tiredness, and… need I go on?" Sophie chuckled.

"Oh yeah, I forgot. We're 'Portalian', or whatever the scientist said. Might as well end memory loss to that list of yours."

"How could I forget?"

"Bad pun."

"I know."

_Knock-knock._ We both jumped at the sudden sound, and looked at the door as that seemed to be where it came from.

"Hey, what are you two doing in there?" We stared wide eyed at the door. What all had Fang heard?

"…Hello?" I mentally shook my head of the scenarios playing out if she heard our conversation. None of them were pretty, but we weren't answering her, and we were behind a closed door. One thing I remembered of my parents is that the doors were never allowed to be closed, even if the occupants of the room were of the same sex. Just because homo/bi-sexuality was finally accepted, it doesn't mean every damn person on the planet was looking to hook-up with anyone they laid eyes on!

"What?" I finally got out after my mental tirade.

"I asked you what you were doing in there, but I don't think I want to know…" there was a teasing edge to the voice, and even worse… suggestive. I looked back at Sophie, and I could tell that I wasn't the only one blushing at Fang's words. At least it sounded like she hadn't heard our little talk…

"Fang!" Sophie wined, obviously not liking the mental pictures the Pulsian put in her head. I did my part by suffering the few hops over to the door and banging on it right where the listener's ear would be.

"Ow…" Fang was rubbing at her ear when I opened the door, and I openly glared at her.

"What planet do you come from where it's okay to fuck your sister?" I all but hissed. It sounded a little more malicious than I had intended it to be, but… I just did not like her tone or the mental pictures she had given us. It was just wrong, and she had just met us.

"Well, it was a little more hush-hush, but it wasn't unheard of on Pulse." I think she was expecting a reaction, but all that really happened was my right eye twitched.

"…Fantastic," I muttered. Fang smirked and continued to do so as I motioned for Sophie to get up. As I placed an arm around her shoulder for support and allowed her to guide us out, I leaned over to whisper something in her ear, just loud enough for fang to hear.

"I don't want you talking to her, she's nuts," I said, the tease only audible to Sophie's trained ear. Fang laughed, but Sophie nodded, getting the humor.

"Agreed."

**A/N: I think this was more filler than anything, though there were a few important things that needed to be said.**

**Unfortunately, this will be my last update for the next two weeks or so. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get out of going to see my dad. He doesn't have internet, and I doubt I'll even be let onto the computer so… no updates for you for a while :(**

**I hope this was enough to sate your thirst though (I'm still parched -.-). Also, I need your help. I read over the chapter, and it always feels like something is wrong… it either feels like it's rushed and going too fast or something is just plain missing. I'd appreciate it if you helped me find what it was, so I can make the story better.**

**DON'T FORGET THE POLL IN MY PROFILE AND _REVIEW!_ :D**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: I started writing this before I left for my dad's, I suppose that didn't help much…**

**SHIIITTTT. Five chapters in and I've yet to put a disclaimer! I don't own FFXIII, but I do own original content in the story.**

Juwpiter081, I'm keeping my options open. I mentioned that poll in my profile. So far there are a few votes for Sophie/Trinity pairing, but that isn't the one that's winning. Still, I never close something off until I'm sure of what I want to do. But, yeah, that little insert there could go either as a tease or as a start of something else entirely.

**I lied when I said I change the dialogue entirely. When I said I won't go word for word, I meant I won't go out of my way to see what the exact conversation is. And then there are the scenes I just can't resist keeping… me loves me some Fang sarcasm :3 Okay, I'm good, you can read now. **

**Edit: I started this a year ago… the fuck, life?**

D.G: Final Fantasy XIII

Chapter 5: Plans

The three of us reentered the family room, though it had gained a few more occupants since the last we saw it. They were all sitting in thoughtful silence as we made our way to an open couch. Sophie and I once again took the small couch while Fang made for a chair across the center table, opposite Hope and his father. No one looked up as we entered, especially Snow who looked like he was building up for the biggest speech of his life.

_Ah yes, his confession. I know when we are, now…_

Suddenly the tall, blond haired NORA leader got up from his seat and dropped to the floor before Hope's father. He bowed so far I could have sworn he was kissing the ground, and his pained voice spoke into the silence.

"The blame is mine! I couldn't save her…" the giant remained on the floor, refusing to look into Bartholomew's eyes. Hope's father sighed out of grief, and held his head in his hand, but otherwise said nothing. Hope looked away from the man beside him.

"If it wasn't for Snow… I wouldn't be here, now," the boy said, sticking up for the man he once intended to kill. Bartholomew sighed again and looked up to see Snow still on his hands and knees.

"Did she… did Nora say anything to you?" At this Snow looked up, finally meeting the man's eyes.

"Hope," he said with little to no pause. "She said to, 'Get him home.'"

Bartholomew looked at his son who in turn nodded in confirmation. The man turned back to Snow. His fist contacted the table, and for a second Snow looked even more guilty and pained, but Bartholomew interrupted whatever Snow had been thinking.

"And that's exactly what you've done," Bartholomew declared sternly. Snow looked up, and the look on his face was hard to describe, but if I had to, I'd say it was mostly surprised, but also consisted of hope. Hope for forgiveness. The man's son turned to his father and showed a small smile, relieved as well. Everyone in the room started letting out breaths, save for me and Sophie. I was surprised that even Lightning had been holding her breath.

"Seeing you all as you are here, before me now… it is hard to imagine that you are all dangerous fugitives. L'cie, nonetheless. The entirety of Cocoon are scared to death of you L'cie. And not just you, people who have helped you, bumped into you. People who have just walked _by _one of you. Those people are tainted in their eyes, and want every single one of them purged!" The oldest in the room, the exception being Fang, stated coldly, his obvious disgust at the thought showing. I was beginning to remember this conversation a little too well.

"The Sanctum is a puppet of the Fal'cie!" cried and outraged Snow. "To them, our lives are meaningless…" Bartholomew grunted at the truth in Snow's words. "We'll stop them! Together we will take down the Sanctum, _and _save Cocoon!" With the last sentence Bartholomew's eyes narrowing reprovingly.

"You've thought that through?" Snow looked taken aback at the simple sentence, and remained silent, not sure what to say.

"If L'cie take down the Sanctum, fear of Pulse will only get worse. They won't just be afraid; people will take up arms, and stand against you." Everyone in the room looked downcast at the man's words. Apparently they had never thought about it before.

"Can you imagine it?" he continued, looking around at all the present faces. "The mass chaos?" Lightning looked up in understanding, chiming in to the scenario.

"When the government's control is gone, the people will rebel," she said, for once the cold tone gone, replaced by an insightful one. Snow looked away from the girl. If Light said it, then it must be a real possibility, and the situation appeared crumble in on him. Not quite, though.

Fang stood from her chair, looking fed up. "So, what then? Are we supposed to just smile and eat a bullet?" she scoffed, looking at Hope's father. "That means you too."

"I know I'm a part of this," Bartholomew chuckled dryly. "I'm on your side of the fence, harborer of l'Cie and a public enemy."

Fang shook her head in frustration and to me, the room got that much more apprehensive.

"Coming here… was a bad idea," Hope said, his head down. His father grasped his shoulder reassuringly.

"This is your home," he stated, offering a small smile. Hope returned the gesture and Bartholomew stood from the couch. "We're all here, let's figure this out together."

I looked away from him, and focused on the carpet. I waited for the lights to flicker off, which would signal PSICOM had arrived. The lights stayed on. The l'Cie in the room began planning with Bartholomew nodding in approval or interrupting to object an idea and offer up a better course of action. I felt the skin between my brows crease and I looked up towards the windows, where soldiers should have been by now, posed for attack. The house should have been swarming with PSICOM; Snow, Bartholomew, and Sophie and I should be hiding to avoid the battle. What was going on?

I turned back to Sophie who looked just as confused as I was. Neither of us said anything; how could we? The only thing we could do that wouldn't blow our cover was to wait.

"And what about you two? From what I've been told, you aren't l'Cie, either." Our head's snapped to Hope's father, our silent questions to each other temporarily forgotten.

"What about us?" Sophie asked when I didn't. I think she sounded more defensive than she meant to.

"You tell me. You've been following Hope and I since we cut off from the mob," Snow said. He had the hint of a smirk that only cops have when they've caught the criminal in the act. I would know. Sophie and I have come across our fair share of them when we were trying to swipe some food.

Sophie, on the other hand, looked shocked that he knew. I could tell that she was about to lie and say something like 'I don't know what you're talking about', but I beat her to it.

"Would you have preferred we didn't?" I asked. His smirk wore off and he looked down. Of course he was glad we followed him. As wrong as it was, we saved their asses.

"So, what? You manage to take down one of PSICOM's machines and you suddenly think you're strong enough to tag along? Why? Because it sounds fun? You have nothing better to do?" Lightning was glaring at the two of us. I figured she wouldn't like the idea of the two of us joining them. Two humans that show up out of nowhere, stalk a few of her companions, and just out of the good of their hearts want to help l'Cie fugitives? Yeah. That doesn't sound suspicious at all. Lightning took my silence as my way of saying 'yeah, whatever,' or something along those lines, and scoffed. "You have no idea what you've gotten yourselves into."

I fought the urge to silently mimic her last sentence. Oh, the irony…

"So what would you have us do then, huh? Here we are offering up a bit of help, and you just want to blatantly refuse? Give me one good reason why we shouldn't be able to tag along and saying, 'You're a liability' or some crap like that isn't an answer," I told her, straining to lower my tone which had started to rise. I was glaring right back at the ex-soldier. She had been my second favorite character in the games, but I knew two stubborn heads don't go together too well.

"I'd have you stay here. You'd only get in our way." I knew I was imagining it, but it wouldn't have surprised me if she was mocking me with her calm voice and how she was able to control her anger.

My good hand clenched and unclenched as I took a deep breath in an attempt to be as calm as she was, and I decided saying 'That's what you told Hope,' was out of the question.

In my silence I half expected Sophie to speak up on our behalf, but she remained silent.

"Look, we want to bring down the Fal'Cie rule just as much as you do. We've had a few years of training, and we are well aware of the risks. Let us help, in any way we can. We're willing to go to Pulse, if that's what it takes." I mentally smiled at my subtle joke and I caught Fang quirking an eyebrow at the last part.

"I say they should come. I like 'em. They're dedicated, if a bit screwy in the head," Fang's voice came from behind Light. I didn't break eye contact with Lightning, and she kept her eyes on me as well.

"Their 'dedication' is going to get them killed. What can they do? They can't heal themselves and they don't have magic on their side—" I cut her off and held up my injured hand.

"My dedication has kept me alive. We can take out soldiers and PSICOM units just as easy as you can. The only reason _this _happened is because I didn't have a weapon on me. We can take out the grunts while you handle the stronger enemies. We know it may as well be a suicide mission, especially for us, but the way I see it, so is staying here." I took a deep calming breath. "If we get killed going with you that's our problem. If it makes _you _feel any better, if I just so happen to get a fatal wound, I'll make sure to stay out of your way."

No one talked, and the silence was unnerving. Lightning still hadn't taken her eyes off the two of us, but now instead of glaring she seemed to be sizing us up.

"Fine. If you know you have a high chance of dying, so be it. But if you fall behind, you get left behind. Is that fair enough?"

"I would have been surprised if you said anything different." She finally looked away, and I allowed myself a triumphant smile.

"Fantastic. Now what?" Snow asked. He hadn't gotten up from the floor, but he was working on standing.

"_You_ still need to rest until your injuries are fully healed," my hand and foot throbbed in unison but I tried to ignore it, "The rest of us will formulate a plan to meet up with Sazh and Vanille. After that, we'll find a way to take down the Fal'Cie," Lightning told him. He looked disappointed, but didn't protest at her silent order to go lay back down. The room came alive with ideas of how to find their friends. Hope mostly listened, though he would voice his agreement with Lightning whenever possible. Fang wanted to literally go searching for them, but that was quickly shot down because of how irrational it was. Hope's father suggested they wait for the news to announce l'Cie activity that wasn't their own and go from there. Fang didn't like the idea of waiting, but since there really wasn't a better option they all began building on the suggestion. Sophie and I stayed out of it. It might have appeared it was because we had little to no idea what the rest of the group was talking about, but I'm pretty sure it was because we were both waiting for what should have happened a while ago.

First Light and Fang being late to save Hope, now the delay of the attack on Hope's house; just thinking about it got my head hurting again. What was causing all the delays? Maybe Sophie was right. Maybe we were changing things just by being there, even if we weren't doing so intentionally. But, no matter how late PSICOM was, neither of us were willing to relax enough to the point that we would be unprepared when they did show. IF they showed. I was tense, and Sophie kept twitching at every sound that was even slightly out of the ordinary.

"Right. So we wait for a lead to be broadcasted and we'll head in that direction. When we get there, wherever it is, we'll make ourselves known so that Sazh and Vanille will know to look for us, too?" Hope asked his companions. Light nodded. "But how will we get there fast enough? They could be anywhere."

"Don't worry about that. We'll hitch a ride with a few friends of mine," Fang laughed. Her spirits were lifted now that they had somewhat of a plan.

"Friends?" Light looked at Fang, a hint of doubt in her voice.

"Eh, I made somewhat of a deal with someone high in rank with the Cavalry. He'll fly us out to wherever they announce Vanille is."

"Okay. We have a plan, we have a ride. All there's left to do is wait for a lead," Light said, leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms and legs. Hope and Fang nodded simultaneously, also relaxing into their seats. The room was encompassed in silence once again. Everyone in their own thoughts. I was listening for the sound of flying equipment and guns. I couldn't hear any. Sophie took a deep breath then opened her mouth to say something, but thought better of it and closed her mouth quickly, shaking her head.

"What?" I asked her. She looked at me. _Later,_ is what that look told me. _We'll talk about it later. _I was a little disappointed; I wasn't too keen on the silence and I was hoping for a small distraction to break my tension. But, I supposed that, once again, this would be a conversation for our ears only. I sighed despite myself. It was still too quiet, and if the other people in the room noticed our little exchange, they didn't show it.

"How long do you think it will take?" I asked no one in particular. Light glanced over and Fang looked at me questioningly. "To find your friends, I mean," I clarified. Light went back to thinking, allowing Fang to answer.

"Who knows? I don't know about this Sazh guy, but Vanille is good at staying under the radar when she wants to. It could take awhile…" She paused. "Then again, it'd be pretty hard to hide when the military knows which face to look for…"

"Right… neither of them would happen to have a phone or some other device you could use to contact them to make a rendezvous point, would they?" She looked at me like I had grown an extra head. "What? It's a fair question, isn't it?"

"You're not a very good listener, are you?"

"Um… I can be when I need to be. What should I have been listening to?"

"When we were discussing the plan. You didn't catch any of that?"

"Oh, right. I, uh… caught the important parts. I was actually listening to make sure PSICOM didn't show up at the doorstep. I wouldn't put it past them to still be after you even though we stopped for some 'R and R'," I told her. She raised a brow. "Rest and relaxation," I said, answering her unasked question. She looked confused for a second but then nodded.

"Hm. Good to know I'm not the only one worried we're still being tailed," Lightning said off handedly, glancing sideways at Fang. If I didn't know any better, I'd say the great Lightning Farron was teasing the warrior. Then again, she could just be vaguely chastising Fang, or anyone else, for that matter. Though, Light never was one for subtleness. I dismissed it as simple banter.

"You think they're looking for us? Or do you think they know where we are and are planning a strike?" I asked the ex-soldier.

"Honestly? I think they know we're here. They're probably gathering their forces, and preparing a strategy," she grimaced. "And if that's true, we should be on our toes. PSICOM's not above blowing this place sky high just to get rid of l'Cie, and ease the minds of the populace."

"How long do you figure we have?" Silence. At first I thought she didn't hear me, or she was ignoring the question, but then she answered.

"I'm surprised we're still here."

_That makes three of us._

Hope, who I had all but forgotten stood up, then. "We should leave, then. The sooner the better… we can hide until Snow fully recovers." He turned to his father. "I don't want to put any more people in danger."

"Hope… you don't have to go just yet. Stay, rest. When it's time to leave, you will. But that doesn't have to be now," his father told him, as he stood up as well. I could detect a hint of desperation in his voice. My head started throbbing again.

"Your dad's right. When PSICOM gets here, we'll take Snow and slip out. We don't need to leave, not now at least," Light said, a small indication of empathy in her tone.

"As much as I want to stay here, I know we can't. Each second we wait, you get put in more and more danger. If we leave now, you'll have a better chance of PSICOM leaving you alone." Hope looked down. His fists clenched, and for a moment his face became distorted in pain. "I won't lose more family due to this l'Cie business."

Bartholomew went to say something, but he closed his mouth. I'd expected him to look defeated, but he just looked thoughtful. He looked up at his son, then turned to the rest of us.

"You—"

"Trin!" Sophie cut him off in a loud whisper. She quickly stood up and grabbed my arm, bringing me with her. I stared at her, a little startled at the outburst. She wouldn't look at me though. Everyone stared at her, and she just stared at nothing. "Listen…" I waited for her to say something, but she didn't. No one did. The only sounds were the buzzing lights and a faint whirring…

Lightning jerked her head towards the window first. Then Fang, and finally Hope.

_Finally._

"Hope, go get Snow, we need to leave," Light demanded as she drew her weapon. The boy nodded and ran off in the direction Snow had took, and not a second later, the lights died.

"Speak of the devil, and the devil appears," Sophie whispered from beside me. A spotlight shined through the windows, and with that light, I saw Hope and Snow were back in the room. We listened to the sound of footsteps, moving soldiers and speakers, but no one moved. Why wasn't something happening?

I widened my eyes at the sudden memory that flashed through my mind.

"Get back, don't breath it in!" I yelled over the noise that just kept getting louder. Everyone but Sophie looked at me strangely, but then Light's eyes lit up and her head snapped towards the ceiling.

"Heads up!" she yelled. The glass above us smashed, and gas filled the room a second later. Everything started to blur as the gas made my eyes water. I started coughing as well; I was unable to stop it from filling my lungs. PSICOM started pouring in. I heard a voice coming through the smoke.

"Hope! In the back!" I placed the voice with Snow.

"You're not ready for this!" I heard the boy say. "I'm staying here. You help my dad."

A hand grabbed my shoulder and pulled me back. I held my fist up and took a swing, but the offender blocked my hand. "Trin, it's me!" That's Sophie's voice…

"Come on!" she said again. She grabbed my wrist and started pulling me through the dissipating smoke, but my vision was still blocked with tears that wouldn't leave.

"You two, go with Snow!" I turned towards the voice, and was met by a blue blur. I was pulled again, this time through a door. I saw two more blurs, both sitting on something else blue.

"Where's your bathroom?" I heard Sophie ask.

"This isn't really the time for that—" I think that was Snow, but Sophie stopped him.

"Where is the damn bathroom?" No one talked, but the blur to the left had an extension come out of it. Sophie dragged me in the direction indicated, and soon I was sat on something cold, and felt porcelain.

A cabinet opened, then running water.

"Trin, open your eyes," Sophie told me. I shook my head.

"Don't argue with me right now, open your damn eyes!" she didn't wait for me to comply. A wet washcloth was pressed to my face. When the thing pulled away, I attempted to open my eyes but hissed in pain and quickly shut them again. Sophie growled in frustration, and pulled me up. She forced me to bend forward, and I held my hands out to stop my head from hitting anything. They found a large bowl. Then I heard running water again and a few drops fell on my hands… not a bowl. A sink.

Without warning, cold water splashed my face. I tried to recoil, but Sophie's arm was keeping me in place. More water splashed my eyes.

"Stop!" I yelled at her. A crash came from the other side of a wall, to the right, I think.

"Open your eyes!"

I tried. They stung. I closed them again.

"Damn it, Trinity!" I felt pressure below and above my left eye. Was she trying to force my eyes open?

I tried to pull away as the pain hit, but Sophie wouldn't have any of it. She kept my eye open with one hand and splashed it with the other. I expected it to sting, but instead there was just relief as the water hit my open eye. My vision cleared a little. Sophie went to splash me again, and this time I didn't struggle. When my left eye was mostly clear, and I could see the majority of my surroundings, I eagerly pulled myself closer to the sink and splashed my whole face, multiple times with my eyes open. Another crash came from the living room.

"You okay?" Sophie asked from behind. She still had her hand on my shoulder, looking at me through the mirror. That's all I could comprehend, concerning her anyways. I was busy looking at my bloodshot eyes. I couldn't even see the whites, the red had taken over and the only color left was the blue of my iris.

"That stuff was strong…" I whispered to myself.

"Yeah, I think it was some sort of tear gas. Nothing like we had on Earth," she said. We both winced. The headache was back. Again. As I thought about the headache, I also remembered my other injuries. I jumped as the pain in my foot returned as if it knew I was thinking about it, and the throb in my hand came back full force, causing me to pull it back from the sink to cradle it to my chest.

"We should go back to the others."

I nodded in agreement and put an arm over her shoulder, allowing her to guide us back into the room with the blurs, which I now realized were Snow and Hope's father sitting on blue chairs. They both looked up at our entry, and their eyes widened when they found mine.

"What happened?" Snow asked quietly, cringing away from the wall behind him in response to another crash. I shook my head.

"I think one of the gas canisters got a little too close to my eyes. I don't think anyone else was affected," I told him. Bartholomew relaxed a little into his chair, probably relieved that his son hadn't been injured… that he knew of.

Sophie and I stood in that room awkwardly for what seemed like years. The battle in the other room raged on and on, and I was starting to think it wasn't going to stop. Then the amount of gunshots started decreasing, and finally silence encompassed the house once more. That, of course, didn't speak for the commotion going on _outside._

Snow stood up with a purpose, only stumbling a little. Bartholomew started to help him, but Snow shook his head and looked through the door.

"Is it over? Are they…?" his question trailed of, and his concern for Hope made Snow smile a little.

"They're fine, Hope is a tough kid."

Reassured, the two walked out of the room, and we followed them out. We rounded the corner to the living room and found all of the soldiers sprawled out across the destroyed living room. The windows were all completely broken, and the L'cie that stayed to fight were hiding behind them and looking out for more threats. Hope, who had been looking at something on the floor, looked up and saw Snow and his father had entered the room.

Sophie started to help me over to the rest of the group when a spotlight shined through the smashed ceiling, and momentarily blinded our eyes. We continued over to the three L'cie, and stopped to lean against the wall that hid us all from the next wave of soldiers.

Light and Fang leaned over to look out of one of the shattered windows. You could tell their forces were getting large by Fang's comment.

"Who ordered the Battalion?" she asked no one in particular. Light glanced over her shoulder at the woman and replied more seriously,

"They'll take out the whole building, next."

"You mean they haven't already?" I couldn't help myself. Looking around the room, you couldn't tell it was the same one we had been holding conversation in maybe twenty minutes before. Light turned around and looked disapprovingly at my comment, but then her focus turned to Snow and Bartholomew, who still stood outside the room, and waved them over.

The two quickly made it over to safety, and Hope and his father reunited. While Bartholomew showed his concern for his son, Snow collapsed onto the floor next to Fang in exhaustion. The two made sure the other was safe, and when it was confirmed that they both were, Hope nodded towards Lightning to proceed with the next plan of action.

"Trin," Sophie whispered in my ear. I turned away from Snow, who was about to pull of his stunt, and looked at her downcast face. "You believe me now, don't you? Something's wrong?"

I knew what she was talking about, but it wasn't the time for in depth conversations, so I answered the only 'play-off' way I could.

"Yeah, my foot, hand, and eyes. They all hurt, and one out of three of them are your fault."

She glared at me, obviously not in the mood for humor. "I'm serious, Trin, something's wrong –" I hushed her when her voice began to rise.

"I know, I know. Now just isn't the time, Soph. Things are about to get even more intense."

My avoidance of the conversation made her huff and look away, but we both jumped when we heard the gunfire.

"We can talk about this after we get on the Cavalry ship, but seriously. Now is not the time," I whispered, hoping she heard me over Snow's speech.

"Fine. As soon as we get the chance, and when we can talk without interruption. Not a moment later," she demanded, her eyes burning. I had never seen her so determined, and suddenly Bartholomew wasn't the only one who was worried. I nodded my agreement, and right as I did the racket outside burst up in volume. The PSICOM we could see out the windows were quickly falling, and no one inside had even lifted a finger.

At the sight of what was happening, Lightning stood up and turned to Hope. "We're leaving. Tie up your dad." Hope looked confused but didn't object. Light then turned to his father. "We threatened you and forced you to help us," she stated.

He started to object, but Hope cut him off, leaving him defeated. The two went to the back of what was left of the room. Knowing what conversation they would have next, and with the knowledge neither of us had no part in it, Sophie and I made our way closer to the windows. It seemed everyone inside had forgotten about Snow, who was struggling to get up. He was coughing profusely, and looked like a deer caught in headlights, standing in front of the ship that faced him.

"Come on," Sophie said to me, nudging me toward the window. We climbed out, and a second later the rest rushed past us with their weapons brandished. Snow fell back until he was beside us, away from the air craft's line of fire.

"Is this what you signed up for?" he said dryly, not taking his eyes off the battle. The two of us looked at him, at each other, and back before I spoke for the two of us.

"This is exactly what we signed up for."

He turned to us, coughed once, and then focused back on the battle. "Well, as long as you know…"

Sophie and I shared a look. I wondered briefly how they would take the truth, if we ever got the guts to tell them. The explosions that continuously racked the darkness lit up our faces and played with shadows that made us look almost evil. Perhaps they would think us crazy? Maybe, but then they live in a world where magic exists. Maybe to them, inter-dimensional travel wouldn't be as out of the norm as one would think. I hoped, anyways. Sophie and I could only keep up a face for so long.

The aircraft finally went down, and the fighting group was starting to look as exhausted as Snow. Us three on the side lines watched intently as the last explosions made the thing disappear under the ledge, and Snow gritted his teeth when another one took its place.

"They need help!" he said, though he looked like he was talking to himself. He started forward, but neither of us stopped him; instead, Sophie and I followed.

"What are you three doing? Get back!" Lightning caught sight of us and was waving us back to safety. Snow, being his stubborn self, didn't even look at her and struggled to take a fighting stance next to Hope. Sophie and I, on the other hand, stopped when we were three fourths of the way to the group. Lightning looked between Snow and us with her glare, and tried one more time.

"I said get back!"

A flash lit up our surroundings, soon followed by a deafening blast that sent shockwaves from behind us. My arm that was supporting me on Sophie's shoulder gripped tighter in preparation for the second explosion, the one that could send us flying backwards if we didn't brace ourselves.

The missile hit the enemy ship, and a wave of heat pushed everyone a few feet back. I shielded my eyes from any debris that might have flown off, and like everyone else turned to see where the missile had come from.

"Come on," Sophie said to me, pulling me forward. We went right up behind Fang, who still stood with the others in their fighting stances.

The new ship landed, the door opened, and four PSICOM clad soldiers rushed out with another one strolling along behind them. Fang gradually came out of her stance as realization took over, and Sophie and I continued walking until we were right beside her.

"Heya, Fang," the confident soldier said, taking off his helmet. Long hair was released from the containment, revealing a cocky smile. "Need a ride?"

The warrior, now completely relaxed in the presence of a familiar face, smirked. "Don't get cute." She turned to the rest of the L'cie, still on the defensive. "Right, let's move it!"

They all hesitated at first, but Sophie and I quickly fell into stride behind the woman, eager to get on the Lindblum and have our talk.

**A/N: I hated this chapter with a burning passion. I did. It was boring to write, and once I got something down, it seemed stupid. My fifth time rewriting, I decided, "Screw it." This part wasn't really that important anyways. All I want is to get the group to meet back up with Vanille and Sazh. That's all. Then I can have my fun. On the bright side, I have the next chapter partway done… Sort of.**


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